You're My Weakness
by GeekChic1424
Summary: Ladybug and Chat Noir have discovered that they each have one fatal flaw in their Miraculouses, that if left alone has the ability to kill them both. The only way to save themselves is to save each other. But, as Marinette and Adrien grow closer, and the lies they have told their friends come back to bite them, can anyone truly be saved at all?
1. Chapter 1

Ladybug just couldn't stop laughing.

Part of it was relief, of course. After waiting for her partner at the designated meeting place for over two hours to start their night patrol, she had spent another hour and a half combing the city for any sign of Chat Noir through the endless, grey rain, the only way that she was able to see was from the dim street lights and the occasional flash of lightning, and she had found him completely by accident after hearing his bell jingle as he shivered.

The other part was the fact that Chat was currently cowering underneath a park bench, tail flicking, shivering from the cold and yowling at each drop of water that touched him.

Still giggling, she dropped to her knees and peered underneath.

Chat was curled up in a tight ball, his tail swishing angrily. Was his hair standing on end? It was hard to tell with the water drowning everything.

"Come on! Out, kitty!"

Chat hissed, looking as surprised as she was for the animalistic sound coming out of his mouth.

"Sorry, My Lady." he said, curling up even tighter, the end of his tail almost touching his nose. "I usually love the rain- when I'm in civilian form, that is. I don't know what's going on."

Marinette loved the rain as well. She often stared out the window and imagined dancing in the rain or huddled together under an umbrella with Adrien, walking along the Seine and listening to the rain hit the river, kissing him as the rest of the world drove by.

She sighed happily at the daydream.

Now, Chat had crawled out from under the seat. His ears were pressed against his head and he was still shaking.

"He's getting sick." Tikki whispered from Ladybug's earrings, and Marinette stopped laughing immediately. "Look- his kwami is losing strength. You need to get Chat Noir out of here!"

Tikki was right. Chat's ring was flashing even though it was fully charged. His suit started fading out in small patches, showing glimpses of blue jeans, a white jacket, the hem of a black shirt, orange sneakers.

Ladybug grabbed Chat Noir by the tail. She flipped over the road and landed inside a cafe. The other customers didn't even look, either not noticing or not caring that one of Paris' superheroes was so sick that he could stand up straight, putting so much weight on Ladybug the she almost fell over.

"You need to go home, Chat!"

"No! I want to stay with you!"

Chat's arms were no longer clad in leather, and the tail and cat ears had disappeared. His ring was shifting in between black and silver.

Ladybug looked for another spot out of the rain. If he was going to detransform, they should go to a place where there were no witnesses.

"There! Come on, kitty." she led him over to an alley where the edge of a roof just shaded them from the rain.

"Go home now."

"I said I'm coming with you! What if something happens to you? What if you meet an akuma and I'm not there to protect you? What if you slip off the roof and fall and break your neck and you'll be all alone and I wont know where you are and _I'm coming with you!"_

"It's okay, Chat. You know I'll be fine- I can look after myself."

"But-"

"No buts! Go home now. Your kwami must be getting even more sick, and the transformation is almost completely gone."

The suit had completely disappeared except for the mask, and the only thing preventing his identity being shown to Ladybug was a thin, grey cloud covering the whole of his body like a fog. And the invisible kwami Magic.

"Call me when you get home, and I'll do the same. I promise."

"Are you sure?" Chat said, weakening.

"I'm certain. And I have to go. Bye Chat!"

"Wait! I-I want you to stay. I-I want you to know who I am."

Ladybug bit her lip. "No-one must know. I'm sorry, Chat."

"No! My Lady!"

"And, even if we were going to show each other- theoretically!" she added when it looked like Chat was going to say something, "If we were, this isn't the right time."

"But- when is?"

A strange light appeared in Ladybug's eye, and not for the first time (and definitely not the last) Chat wondered who the person was behind that mask.

Then she yo-yoed away.

Plagg finally ran out of energy a moment later, Adrien catching him as he shot out of the ring. Plagg coughed twice, weakly, then passed out.

Adrien tucked the poor godling inside his jacket and peered out into the rain. He had kind of been lying to Ladybug- he didn't mind the rain, but ever since his Mum disappeared, he had hated thunderstorms. Hated, hated, hated them.

But there was no use thinking about that now. Adrien took a deep breath to steady himself, attempted to ignore the thunder, and walked into the torrent of water.

Ladybug yo-yoed away.

She was only half-concentrating on the rooftops. She was still shell-shocked over what Chat had said.

He was okay with her knowing his identity? And without knowing hers in return? He trusted her that much?

Ladybug- well, Marinette- had always held the belief that it was best for everyone if their real identities stayed a secret, but Chat was her best friend (other than Alya) and her closest confidant. She trusted him with all of her problems.

Imagine if she could trust him with all of her secrets? With all of her problems, as both Marinette and Ladybug? She could meet with him and talk about her friends and the next patrol, they could buy some ice-cream together without attracting civilians and discuss ways to take down Hawkmoth. In her imagination it seemed so simple, this mixing of worlds.

But life was never that simple.

And the cons…

Then Ladybug stopped. What were the cons? She'd always stopped Chat from revealing his identity because of the terrible things that would happen, but, what were the bad things?

Ladybug spun her yo-yo again, determined to ignore this new, frightening idea, but she couldn't seem to concentrate enough to wrap her yo-yo around the next chimney, couldn't focus on looking out for the tell-tale signs of trouble. _Come on Marinette, you're hopeless! Don't think about Chat Noir and finish the patrol._

Nodding to herself, Ladybug wrapped her yo-yo around the chimney again and found that she couldn't think of anything other than her partner. How long had he wanted to show her his identity? Was he thinking logically, had decided that it would be the best idea- because underneath that practiced flirting and stupid puns Chat was a true genius, was naturally curious and made more than one lightning-fast, sound decision that had gotten them out of trouble. And when he was excited and wanted to share something with her, his tail would thrash around like it was trying to whip something, or how when he was nervous he had that way of shaking his head so that his hair fell over his eyes and he didn't have to make direct eye contact with her. Unless he was thinking with his emotions again, in which case, he was rash and whatever he said hadn't been thought through. In that case, his tail gave him away again- twisting around itself when he was anxious or too caught up in whatever was happening.

There was a tiny part of Ladybug that smiled at the thought of knowing the little things about her partner so well- better than any of her other friends- and yet, that same part was sad because she didn't know what his real name was, how old he was, where he went to school, his favourite colour, his favourite food. If she let each other reveal their identities she would know every thing about him. Another good thing. Ladybug finished the patrol and landed on the roof of her house, still wondering if there were any bad things (terrible puns all the time, maybe? But no, that was just annoying, not life-threatening) that could stop her from showing herself as Marinette. And yet, even as she realised that there wasn't any, she saw Adrien walking along the footpaths and all thought of Chat Noir disappeared.

He looked so small and cold, with his head hunched over to protect his face from the rain. His shoes were dark orange, obviously soaked through, and he held his coat around him as if it were a single shield against an entire army. The rain washed down everything, bleaching all colour until the world was a pale grey. Each time Adrien walked under a lamplight, his hair shined in the light, the raindrops glistening; to Ladybug it seemed to flash as he walked with the single-minded gait of a person who simply couldn't wait to be inside and dry.

Adrien had come into school just two days ago looking adorably tired after he had returned from a modelling spree in Italy. His hair stood up in all possible angles that added to the newly acquired tan from the start of summer had made him look like a small star, the kind Marinette had drawn around the edges of her worksheets when she was eight. He had been wearing a plain black shirt rather than the stylish one that he usually wore from his father's newest collection and his jacket had been slung over his arm in such a haphazard way that when he had run into the class with just moments to spare before the teacher entered the jacket had slid off his arm and skidded along the floor to rest at the bottom of the teacher's desk. Adrien, meanwhile, had only just managed to save his coffee and his bag from a similar fate and as such had been balanced in a most precarious position on the stairs when the teacher had walked in.

"Are you practicing you're acrobatics, Adrien?" She had asked with a small giggle.

Adrien had blushed bright red and had hastily sat down in his seat. But as the teacher was reading out the roll, Marinette had seen from her table the infamous Pun Paper ( as she had cleverly named it) appear. _How long does it take for the gymnast to get to practice?… A split second!_ Was written in Adrien's neat, straight hand.

Below it, Nino wrote: _Did you hear about the angry gymnast? He just flipped._

Adrien had laughed just then and had to cover it up with a coughing fit when the whole class had looked at him. Marinette had thought it so cute that she had melted all the way to her shoes. Needless to say, she had absolutely no idea what the lesson had been about.

Adrien had almost reached his home now, and Ladybug was far, far out of the way of where she was meant to be patrolling. Oh, how badly she wanted to go down and talk with Adrien! But she was too scared. What if she messed up completely? What if she said something stupid or rude and Adrien thought she was some kind of bitchy girl?

 _Come on, girl. You're Ladybug, You can do anything!_ Not even Ladybug could summon up the courage to go down and say hello. _Ugh. Hopeless, I am so hopeless._ So Ladybug swung away in case Adrien saw and thought that she was stalking him.

She finished off her patrol and landed just outside her house, pink light of her suit disappearing shining through into the houses on either side of the street. Marinette hurried towards the bakery and called Chat quickly, remembering her promise. They had given each other their civilian phone numbers in order to alert the other to an akuma attack and to organise patrols.

Chat picked up almost immediately.

She wasn't sure, but Marinette thought that Chat's voice sounded different when he was in civilian form. It sounded quieter, softer, as if he was a completely different person.

She tried to imagine him as a quiet boy and was surprised at the sadness she felt at that thought. If Chat Noir was quiet, someone would have to be forced upon him. That would never be the real Chat.

"Ladybug? Ladybug! Are you there? Maybe I've put this on mute, hang on-"

"No, Chat. It's fine, I can hear you. I'm sorry, I guess I just kind of drifted off. Are you feeling better?"  
"Much, thanks. I went home to grab some dry clothes and warm up Plagg- my kwami- a bit in front of the fire and I'm just heading to Master Fu's house now. Have you met him?"  
"Yes. He helped out my kwami once, when she was sick. Do you know where you're going?"  
"I was just going to ask you that. You see, Plagg told me that he lived in the Montparnasse district, but then he passed out again, so I didn't get anymore than that. I'm on the train at the moment, if that helps."

"Well, when you get off the train, turn left…" Marinette opened the back door of the bakery and ran up the stairs without saying hello to her parents, who were standing in the lounge room. Marinette gave Chat the directions as he walked through Paris, groaning at his puns ('I can't turn right, so I'll turn wrong'- really?) until he reached Master Fu's house.

"Thanks, My Lady. I'll see you next week, then?"

"Unless there's an akuma attack before then, well, yes. I'll see you then."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! This is my first fan fiction and I am really excited- I have lots of awesome things planned for this story! If anyone has any critiques (even just showing me where I've misspelled something) or has any ideas about where you want this story to go please write a review. I will try and post a two new chapters each week, but we'll see how we go. :-)**

 **Enjoy!**

Adrien hung up and knocked on the door. There was a call of "Come in!" from inside, so he cautiously stepped opened it.

He looked down at Plagg. The warming in front of the fire had certainly helped Adrien, but it hadn't seemed to help Plagg at all. Was it just him, or was his fur… grey? As if all of the power was draining out him.

The house was reasonably simple, with the mats on the floor, the walls and the ceiling either made or decorated with bamboo. There was a foyer with one chair and a corridor leading off it. At the end of the corridor was a screen which, as Adrien saw when he moved closer, was decorated with designs of dragons and cherry blossoms. There was a light behind it.

Adrien wanted to pulled the door aside with a big Chat Noir-like 'Ta da!' but just before he did, he remembered that he was the polite, quiet Adrien Agreste, so he knocked softly and waited.

An old Asian man slid the door open.

"Chat Noir! I was expecting you." he said, grinning like a small boy.

Adrien gasped. "H-how do you- wait. You're the man with the walking stick!"

"I am. And I must say, M. Agreste, that you passed my test with flying colours."

"I-I- thank you, Monsieur."

"Master Fu, if you please."

Adrien nodded and followed the old man into a small room with two cushions on the floor, and a hexagonal box sitting on a chest of drawers.

"Now, let's see." Master Fu took Plagg and laid him down on a cushion, then sat on the other one. He started to hum quietly, then murmured to himself in a Chinese dialect that Adrien didn't understand. Adrien, not sure what to do, stood at the edge of the room.

"Mmm." Master Fu placed his hand next to Plagg's prone body, then nodded as if someone was talking in his ear. "Did Plagg tell you about what might happen in a thunderstorm?"

It took Adrien a moment to realise that Master Fu was talking to him and not the invisible person whispering in his ear. "Well… I think that he was going to, but then I said 'Claws out' before he could open his mouth."

Master Fu glared at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Why all this awful rush? I'll have you know that your kwami has lived for a millennia or two. Whatever they say should be treated with respect."

"Well, all Plagg ever talks about is cheese." Adrien murmured under his breath.

Master Fu heard him anyway. "That's very true," he replied, "but that's also not the actual reason you didn't listen to him. Will you tell me the truth?"

Briefly, Adrien thought of making up something, but he could tell that Master Fu was far too wise to fall for anything that Adrien could think of off the top of his head. So he blurted out the whole, shameful truth.

"When we patrol together, Ladybug and I, I like to get to our meeting place early. That way, I can watch her coming towards me and I can imagine that she's coming to meet me not because we're just friends, or because we have to start our patrol, but because she… she just wants to see me. That Chat Noir, or Adrien, either one, is enough for her. Just me." Adrien laughed sadly. "I know, it sounds stupid."

Master Fu didn't laugh. Instead, he put his hand on Adrien's shoulder. "May I tell you a secret, son?''

That one word, son, was enough to raise Adrien's spirits, even if it was only slightly. That this man knew who he was- both Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir- and still treated him like a normal person was a beautiful feeling. Even Marinette and Ladybug, his two Lucky Charms and the kindest girls in the world, seemed to act all awkward when they were around him as Adrien, and turned him down the he was Chat Noir.

"This is something that I have learned from having kwamis living in my house. The Miraculous' history since the beginning of time- since the kwamis were created- and one thing that has never changed is this; every single time a Ladybug and a Chat Noir have met, they have had a happily ever after. Either as friends, as beloved or even as brother and sister they always share the same heart. There has never been a case of unrequited love since the creation of the Miraculous. Food for thought."

Adrien stood there, shocked, as Master Fu returned to Plagg. There has never been one-sided love between the partners since the beginning of time? Does that mean that his was the first, or that Ladybug would fallen love with him one day? Or was she already in love with him, and just wasn't saying?

He opened his mouth to ask but then he saw Plagg. Was his fur darker, or was that just hopeful imagining? "Is he going to be okay?" Adrien asked quietly.

"He has a bad fever, but he'll be fine in a moment." As if to prove this, Plagg's fur changed from sickly grey to almost-normal black, and he opened his eyes and smiled at Adrien, who picked up the kwami and tucked him in his hand. "There must be something very wrong with you- I haven't seen you smile at me like that in- ever!"

Plagg chuckled weakly, the closed his eyes again. Adrien looked at Master Fu with alarm. "He's fine." the old man said. "Just look after him, Adrien. Make sure to keep him warm and out of the rain. And, if this happens again, well, I might not be able to cure him again."

"What?" Adrien almost yelled.

"Ask Plagg when he wakes up. He knows a lot more than I do, and he can explain it." All but pushing Adrien out the door, he waved away the boy's questions, told him very firmly "Goodbye, Adrien!"

Eventually, Adrien gave up. "Goodbye, Master Fu." he waved, then turned down the street, holding his jacket against his body so that Plagg was protected from the weather.

"Lovely boy." Master Fu said to himself, then went inside to warm up again.

Marinette woke up early (for once) and slipped out of bed without waking up Tikki. She showered and dressed, then crept downstairs.

Her parents were already up and working at the bakery but Marinette… kind of wanted to avoid them. They had overheard her talking about running around on the rooftops and the rest of her conversation with Chat, and now thought that she had some kind of secret, bad-boy boyfriend who was taking their lovely daughter to 'live the dangerous life.' The three of the had had a huge row last night.

One con about telling chat her true identity -apparently if he was like her parents would never accept him, even as just a friend. Her parents had gone to bed soon after that, but Marinette had tossed and turned all night. She almost laughed at the thought. Imagine if her parents knew that their daughter was quite often running around across the rooftops of Paris fighting akuma with nothing but a yo-yo and a flirtatious cat for protection. And missing schoolwork. They'd probably ground her for the schoolwork.

Smiling slightly at that last thought, she quickly packed her bag, grabbed her lunch out of the fridge, tucked a still-sleeping Tikki in a cookie-filled purse and ate a croissant for breakfast. That way, she only had to wave goodbye to her parents and run out the door. She knew it was cowardly, but Marinette still felt guilty.

Plus, she wanted to talk to Alya before school started. Her best friend was almost always early, and she would certainly have a good idea as to a nice thing to do to make up with Marinette's parents.

She arrived at school with forty minutes to spare- a new record, even before she became Ladybug!) Alya was sitting on one of the benches playing on her laptop, She almost fell off the seat when Marionette sat down next to her.

"Damn, girl!" she said, shocked. "Since when do you wake up before noon?"

"Very funny. Listen. I have a favour to ask."

"I'm listening. What is it?'' Alya closed her laptop.

"Well, you see, my parents and I had an argument, and I really want to make it up to them. Do you have any ideas?''

Alya but her lip, the way she always did when she was thinking. "Do they need any help at the bakery?" she finally said.

"Actually, yes!" Marinette replied excitedly. "My parents have to cater dessert for a wedding on Monday. I could make all the pastries for them so that they could go out to a lunch and relax together. You're a life saver, Alya!"

Aly didn't seem to be concentrating anymore. "About how many desserts would you have to make?" she asked.

"Well, about 400 or so, because they'll be heaps of people at the reception, but I could make that number myself over the weekend-"

Alya cut her off with a wave of her hand. "You owe me big for this." she whispered, then added a little louder than necessary, "How on Earth are you meant to make all those pastries all by yourself- you'll never have enough time! You'll need another pair of hand for sure! Oh, if only I hadn't agreed to go to that party this weekend!"

Marinette knew who it was even before they opened their mouth. Her whole body was tuned to his presence.

"Hey, guys," Adrien said. "Can I sit down?'

Marinette scooted along the bench, then turned to face him. She could feel the blush creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. Why, oh why did he have to look absolutely perfect every morning? Why couldn't he have bed hair or morning breath or bags under his eyes? But no, he was as absolutely gorgeous as always, as gorgeous as he was kind and funny and positive and-

Marinette made a small mewling sound that had Adrien looking at her in alarm and Alya looking at her in amusement. Then Marinette ducked her head and was silent.

"So… um, I overheard that you needed some help at your bakery. Is that true, Marinette?" Adrien gently asked.

"Um, ah- yes." Marinette answered. Inwardly she cheered. Only tiny stutter before she answered! That had to be a personal best.

"So- when?"

"Uh-mm-thi-la-nnngh" Damn! she was doing so well before!

"This weekend." Alya interjected. Marinette shot her friend a grateful glance.

"This weekend…" Adrien echoed, thinking. "Well, I have a photoshoot on Saturday, but I'm free basically the whole of Sunday. I'd love to help you. Can I come? Before you say anything, I have to add, I haven't actually cooked since Mum… I haven't cooked in while." He smiled apologetically.

"You-with-I-am-come-I- for-I love you. I mean- I'd love for you to come."

Adrien blushed and sighed nervously, but he replied with: "I think it'll be fun."

Marinette was deciding in between running and hiding forever or kissing Adrien for his adorableness.

She went with option one.

"I have to go, um, check something with Mme Bustier. I'll be back!" Marinette shouted, running in the vague direction of the staffroom. She stopped just short of her faked destination and hid in an art cupboard. Tikki zoomed out of her purse.

"It's okay, Marinette! Don't have a panic attack!" she whispered. Marinette didn't listen; she was too busy trying not to hyperventilate.

"I… just… told Adrien… I love… him." she managed to say.

"Well…" Tikki began.

"There is absolutely no way to say it nicely, Tikki. I told Adrien that I love him, then invited me to my house this weekend, before running away! I wish that the world would just swallow me up in a giant hole."

"It's- it's not that bad." Tikki said, then heard the bell ring. "We have to get to class, Marinette."

She added, floating back into Marinette's purse. "Surely you don't want to come to school half an hour early only to be late to class!"

Marinette smiled and poked her head out the door to check that no-one had seen her, then walked nonchalantly towards her locker.

Of course she was still late to class, only just sitting down and sorting out her books a moment before the teacher walked in. Marinette quickly copied down the notes that had already been written on the board before studying the blonde head in front of her. He didn't seem to put off by her rapid departure from the benches and he had smiled at her when she came in the room (causing Marinette to almost trip over her own feet right in front of him). Maybe he was happy to let it pass, but he'd corner her after school and demand an answer, and she wouldn't be able to refuse him because he's Adrien, and then he would find out that she's Ladybug and-

"Marinette!" Alya whispered, elbowing her sharply. Marinette suddenly realised everyone in the class was staring at her.

"Sorry." Marinette said, trying frantically to work out what she had missed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to the review-writers and to all the people who have started to follow this story. I promise I won't disappoint you! Although you're going to be waiting a long time for the bakery scene ;)**

Adrien didn't have a chance to talk to Plagg until they were back home from school. Plagg hadn't woken up until the end of lunchtime, then had asked for the smallest amount of cheese ever and stayed sadly silent for the rest of the day.

Adrien had been very, very worried. He had been out in the rain for only an hour, and yet he had felt so sick that he had almost passed out and Plagg had been sick and unable to even fly for 24 hours. And what about that strange, sickly green flashing? He'd never seen that before.

Plagg knew what Adrien was going to say before he could make a single noise. "Camembert first." he said. "Then I'll tell you everything."

Adrien nodded and gave the little godling a whole wheel of cheese. To his mixed relief and disgust, Plagg ate two giant lumps of cheese before he began.

"Since the creation of the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous, each of the powers has had one weakness. The weakness changes depending upon each holder's past or personality. For you, Adrien, the Chat Noir's weakness is your family. Every time you think about your family the Miraculous will stop working. That's what the flashing is."

"But… that flashing started when it rained."

"No- well, yes- but no. And it wasn't the rain- it was the thunder. Because your mother disappeared during a thunderstorm, whenever you hear thunder you think of her mother, yes? Then you think of your current family, how no-one with talk to you, and I lose control.''

"What do you mean, lose control?"

Plagg was silent for a moment. "Well, I'm not certain how this works, but I am not the actual source of power of the Miraculous." He finally said. "I'm the kwami- my job is to control the power inside the ring and allow you to use it- and all the other Chat Noirs. But their weaknesses, when they hit me-" he shuddered. "It's like being hit by a truck. And because I'm no longer controlling the Miraculous power for a longer time, a bit longer than when we were out in the rain, but not much- it would be chaos. And the Miraculous-" Plagg suddenly stopped, looking at the floor.

"What? What would happen to the Miraculous?" Adrien pressed. When Plagg looked up the boy could almost have sworn that the kwami was crying.

"If the Chat Noir Miraculous lost control… it would be released from your ring and it would destroy the whole city. Imagine your Cataclysm, but unstoppable and one million times worse. You and I would die. Immediately. Painfully. The Cataclysm would destroy us both, reduce us to dust."

"No." Adrien whispered. "Oh, no.''

"And the worst part?" Plagg chuckled with all the sadness in the world resting inside him. "Ladybug and her kwami, because the two Miraculous share such a strong connection, well- they would die too."

"Oh, poor Chat." Marinette clutched her Chat Noir doll tighter.

Tikki nodded slowly. She was sitting on Marinette's bedside table. MArinette jumped off her bed and started pacing. "What do you think Chat Noir's weakness is?"

"Well… there's one more thing. You see, because the Chat Noir and Ladybug Miraculous are two halves of one whole- yin and yang- whatever weakness Chat has would be one of your strengths, and vice versa. And only the other Miraculous holder has the power to conquering their weakness." Tikki explained.

"So your saying that I'm the only one that can help Chat." Marinette said worriedly. "But how do I do that? I don't even know what his weakness is, let alone how to fix it! And what is my weakness? How is it going to affect me? How could Chat help me? Oh, Tikki, this is all so _confusing!"_

"Marinette! _Stop pacing!_ Your going to wake up your parents!"

Marinette sat down. She knew that she should be asleep- it was almost 1am- but sh couldn't sleep now, not with thoughts of her partner's Cataclysm _exploding_ and killing him running around her head.

"I have to go out. Please, Tikki."

The kwami nodded, and soon Ladybug was running across the rooftops of Paris. It had stopped raining, and Ladybug was hoping that she'd see Chat, that they could talk about this and work it out.

She almost didn't see Adrien. he was dressed in a dark green hoodie and blue jeans that were obviously not for his father's collection. Ladybug would have passed by him completely had he not turned his head to catch her eye at just that moment.

Ladybug knew that she shouldn't do anything but wave. What did she have to say to him? Nothing. She probably would't be able to talk to him anyway, even as Ladybug. And yet, she argued these things to herself just as she was swinging towards him.

She dropped down right next to him, balancing on the wall. "Hey." she said.

He didn't answer.

"Adrien? Are you all right? What are you doing out here at this hour?"

No answer again.

"Adrien, please don't ignore me."

At that, he lifted his head. "Sorry. I'm not ignoring you. I'd just rather… not talk right now."

"Oh." Ladybug started to swing her yo-yo. "Would you prefer it if I left?"

"No! No." Adrien grabbed her hand before she could go. "I like you here." he blushed. 'I mean- I'd like you to stay."

"Okay." Ladybug nodded, replacing her yo-yo at her hip then clasping her hands behind her back.

She kept and eye (and an ear- you could usually hear akumas before you saw them) out for any signs of Hawkmoth getting up to trouble, but otherwise she simply enjoyed walking along the Seine with Adrien. Even in the middle of the night, he was still gorgeous, his hair slightly messed up where he'd pulled the hoodie over his head. He seemed kind of sad, but he obviously didn't want to talk about it. may be it had something to do with his father. Marinette idolised Adrien's Dad for his brilliant designing, but once she had found out about his cold-hearted parenting from Alya an Nino, she had not liked him as a person. What sort of madman would force their son into such a confining box? Only Adrien could push through that, could still smile and laugh not be overwhelmed by hopelessness. The way he walked, the way he held himself, seemed to speak volumes about his ability to stand up to his father, his confidence and unruffable demeanour.

Of course, Marinette knew that not all of this was true. Adrien could be a true drama queen when he wanted to be, releasing his emotions that were too big for any one person to contain. It always made Marinette feel secretly happy when he laughed and made his stupid jokes, yelled or cried, because that meant that he trusted her and the other people they were with enough to show his true self.

They walked in silence, simply enjoying each others company, until Ladybug's earrings started to beep and she swung away.

Adrien watched her go. He felt kind of guilty for not allowing her to talk, but he Adrien like just walking with her. She held herself tall, and yet she held her hands behind her back and seemed to curl in on herself when she wasn't thinking about the impression she was giving to the people around her. Adrien- or Chat- remembered when she would come to him for comfort when she was unsure or sad. It charmed him completely that she trusted him enough to show that she wasn't as self-confident as she would have you believe. That she was a normal person, with normal insecurities.

He turned left, back to his house, just thinking about how this horrible, scary day had ended so nicely.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry, I didn't post yesterday, I was quite busy and to be frank I completely forgot. But I wrote another two chapters (yay for being organised)!**

 **Also, you may have noticed that I have changed the rating from K to T. Don't be alarmed! It's nothing more than a bit of kissing, but I'm bumping up the rating for safety. Enjoy!**

Adrien didn't have a chance to talk to Plagg until they were back home from school. Plagg hadn't woken up until the end of lunchtime, then had asked for the smallest amount of cheese ever and stayed sadly silent for the rest of the day.

Adrien had been very, very worried. He had been out in the rain for only an hour, and yet he had felt so sick that he had almost passed out and Plagg had been sick and unable to even fly for 24 hours. And what about that strange, sickly green flashing? He'd never seen that before.

Plagg knew what Adrien was going to say before he could make a single noise. "Camembert first." he said. "Then I'll tell you everything."

Adrien nodded and gave the little godling a whole wheel of cheese. To his mixed relief and disgust, Plagg ate two giant lumps of cheese before he began.

"Since the creation of the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous, each of the powers has had one weakness. The weakness changes depending upon each holder's past or personality. For you, Adrien, the Chat Noir's weakness is your family. Every time you think about your family the Miraculous will stop working. That's what the flashing is."

"But… that flashing started when it rained."

"No- well, yes- but no. And it wasn't the rain- it was the thunder. Because your mother disappeared during a thunderstorm, whenever you hear thunder you think of her mother, yes? Then you think of your current family, how no-one with talk to you, and I lose control.''

"What do you mean, lose control?"

Plagg was silent for a moment. "Well, I'm not certain how this works, but I am not the actual source of power of the Miraculous." He finally said. "I'm the kwami- my job is to control the power inside the ring and allow you to use it- and all the other Chat Noirs. But their weaknesses, when they hit me-" he shuddered. "It's like being hit by a truck. And because I'm no longer controlling the Miraculous power for a longer time, a bit longer than when we were out in the rain, but not much- it would be chaos. And the Miraculous-" Plagg suddenly stopped, looking at the floor.

"What? What would happen to the Miraculous?" Adrien pressed. When Plagg looked up the boy could almost have sworn that the kwami was crying.

"If the Chat Noir Miraculous lost control… it would be released from your ring and it would destroy the whole city. Imagine your Cataclysm, but unstoppable and one million times worse. You and I would die. Immediately. Painfully. The Cataclysm would destroy us both, reduce us to dust."

"No." Adrien whispered. "Oh, no.''

"And the worst part?" Plagg chuckled with all the sadness in the world resting inside him. "Ladybug and her kwami, because the two Miraculous share such a strong connection, well- they would die too."

"Oh, poor Chat." Marinette clutched her Chat Noir doll tighter.

Tikki nodded slowly. She was sitting on Marinette's bedside table. MArinette jumped off her bed and started pacing. "What do you think Chat Noir's weakness is?"

"Well… there's one more thing. You see, because the Chat Noir and Ladybug Miraculous are two halves of one whole- yin and yang- whatever weakness Chat has would be one of your strengths, and vice versa. And only the other Miraculous holder has the power to conquering their weakness." Tikki explained.

"So your saying that I'm the only one that can help Chat." Marinette said worriedly. "But how do I do that? I don't even know what his weakness is, let alone how to fix it! And what is my weakness? How is it going to affect me? How could Chat help me? Oh, Tikki, this is all so _confusing!"_

"Marinette! _Stop pacing!_ Your going to wake up your parents!"

Marinette sat down. She knew that she should be asleep- it was almost 1am- but sh couldn't sleep now, not with thoughts of her partner's Cataclysm _exploding_ and killing him running around her head.

"I have to go out. Please, Tikki."

The kwami nodded, and soon Ladybug was running across the rooftops of Paris. It had stopped raining, and Ladybug was hoping that she'd see Chat, that they could talk about this and work it out.

She almost didn't see Adrien. he was dressed in a dark green hoodie and blue jeans that were obviously not for his father's collection. Ladybug would have passed by him completely had he not turned his head to catch her eye at just that moment.

Ladybug knew that she shouldn't do anything but wave. What did she have to say to him? Nothing. She probably would't be able to talk to him anyway, even as Ladybug. And yet, she argued these things to herself just as she was swinging towards him.

She dropped down right next to him, balancing on the wall. "Hey." she said.

He didn't answer.

"Adrien? Are you all right? What are you doing out here at this hour?"

No answer again.

"Adrien, please don't ignore me."

At that, he lifted his head. "Sorry. I'm not ignoring you. I'd just rather… not talk right now."

"Oh." Ladybug started to swing her yo-yo. "Would you prefer it if I left?"

"No! No." Adrien grabbed her hand before she could go. "I like you here." he blushed. 'I mean- I'd like you to stay."

"Okay." Ladybug nodded, replacing her yo-yo at her hip then clasping her hands behind her back.

She kept and eye (and an ear- you could usually hear akumas before you saw them) out for any signs of Hawkmoth getting up to trouble, but otherwise she simply enjoyed walking along the Seine with Adrien. Even in the middle of the night, he was still gorgeous, his hair slightly messed up where he'd pulled the hoodie over his head. He seemed kind of sad, but he obviously didn't want to talk about it. may be it had something to do with his father. Marinette idolised Adrien's Dad for his brilliant designing, but once she had found out about his cold-hearted parenting from Alya an Nino, she had not liked him as a person. What sort of madman would force their son into such a confining box? Only Adrien could push through that, could still smile and laugh not be overwhelmed by hopelessness. The way he walked, the way he held himself, seemed to speak volumes about his ability to stand up to his father, his confidence and unruffable demeanour.

Of course, Marinette knew that not all of this was true. Adrien could be a true drama queen when he wanted to be, releasing his emotions that were too big for any one person to contain. It always made Marinette feel secretly happy when he laughed and made his stupid jokes, yelled or cried, because that meant that he trusted her and the other people they were with enough to show his true self.

They walked in silence, simply enjoying each others company, until Ladybug's earrings started to beep and she swung away.

Adrien watched her go. He felt kind of guilty for not allowing her to talk, but he Adrien like just walking with her. She held herself tall, and yet she held her hands behind her back and seemed to curl in on herself when she wasn't thinking about the impression she was giving to the people around her. Adrien- or Chat- remembered when she would come to him for comfort when she was unsure or sad. It charmed him completely that she trusted him enough to show that she wasn't as self-confident as she would have you believe. That she was a normal person, with normal insecurities.

He turned left, back to his house, just thinking about how this horrible, scary day had ended so nicely.

Ladybug looked out over the rooftops of Paris, sparkling with lights. This was the one time per week where both of them patrolled together, and Ladybug hoped that Chat would come so that they could talk about the flashing and the weaknesses. because there had been no akumas, she hadn't seen her partner for a whole week. Not that she'd ever admit it, but she always missed her kitty and his stupid puns the moment that she untransformed, and this week especially had been ripping her apart with worry. Was he okay? He'd called her to say that he'd gotten home safely, but what if the weakness meant that he got sick afterward? Oh, this was never going to end well- just _thinking_ about a happy ending was hopeless _._

Chat arrived just as Ladybug was beginning to worry that he wouldn't come. But he was quiet, and his ears were drooping.

"Are you okay? Chat? I mean, you're obviously not okay, but- do you want to talk about it? Goodness, that sounds cliché-"

Chat didn't respond. His tail, usually swishing around in excitement for the patrol, was hanging still. Ladybug opened her mouth to say something else, then paused and really, _really_ looked at her partner. it was obvious that he was sad; it was also obvious that she had something to do with it and that Chat didn't want her to know, for her to pretend that everything was fine.

So Ladybug simply hugged him. "It's okay, kitty." she whispered, resting his head on her shoulder. Chat gasped like a drowning man, his claws digging into her suit- not painfully, just reminding her who he was- a person, with all the pressures of being a superhero, and a superhero, with all the pressures of being a person.

"It's not okay. It'll never be okay." he whispered.

"It will be okay- we'll make it okay. Together, no matter what. All you have to do is tell me what's going on. Yes?"

Chat nodded. His hair tickled her neck, just above the collar of the suit. "Yes." he answered, sitting up a little straighter.

"Your the best, Bugaboo, but…"

"But what?"

"Plagg- that's my kwami-he was telling me about the flashing, and what it means-"

"I know. My kwami, Tikki, she was talking about it too."

"Yeah! But Plagg said that if i was out in the rain any longer, well, he might have died- she told about that too- and, I've just been so scared. What if the weakness can affect him when I'm Adr- when I'm not Chat Noir? What if it happens again, and I'm out in the thunder for so long that he dies? What if he gets sick again, and he never truly gets better? Sometimes I feel like I should just give up the Chat Noir Miraculous for good-"

 _"_ _No!"_

Chat stared at Ladybug. Her face was all blotchy as if she was about to cry. "Don't you ever say anything like that ever again, kitty! _You're_ my partner. No-one else, not ever. Don't you see? We'll work this out together. We can do this easily. Just think, we already know what your weakness is, so basically we just have to keep you out of the rain-"

'It's not the rain."

Ladybug stopped talking, just looking at him.

"It's actually the thunder, well,, sort of. My mother- she disappeared during a thunderstorm. Nad now, whenever I hear thunder, I think of her, and I think of my father. So, my weakness is actually my family. And I can't think of any way to stop that."

Ladybug but her lip, thinking. "I can't think of anything right now. But just remember that family isn't always about blood. I'm your family. All those people who love you for who you are, their your family. It's about the heart." She hugged him again. "Shall we do our patrol, then? Or are you not up for it?"

Chat grinned. It wasn't as bright as it usually was, but it was a grin. "Race you to Montmartre! Last one there has to fight the next akuma while doing a handstand!"

Ladybug laughed and gave Chat a 10-second head start. After all, she always won.


	5. Chapter 5

**_!Warning:_** **MariChat** ** _:Warning!_**

"Hey, Tikki! What do you think my weakness is?"

The kwami munched on her cookie thoughtfully. "Well, what is the one thing that you've never been able to push past, ever since you can remember? It has to be something stopping you from doing the things you want to."

"Well, I certainly can't dance, and I can't really swim-"

"No. Not like that. I mean something you've never been able to do emotionally. Like how Hercules' weakness was his temper, or how Jason's was his ego-"

"Who's Jason?"

"Jason and the Argonauts? No? Well, he was a nice guy as long as you were a man- he and Ladybug had some really heated arguments back then. She was all about women's rights, you see."

"Not really."

"Well, like them, it has to be something that affects your thoughts and actions all the time."

Marinette didn't have to think for a moment. "Adrien." she said.

"No. It can't be a person. But it'll have something to do with Adrien- I know! Insecurity!"

"Why that?" Marinette asked, although her mind was already working out the answer.

"Well, insecurity is the only thing that stops you from doing anything. You aways put yourself down, Marinette."

"I do not!"

"Well, then. Why can't you talk to Adrien?"

"Because… I feel like… it's just hopeless. Why on Earth would he fall for a silly, clumsy girl like me when he could have any girl in the whole of Paris? I'm only one person, and sure, I'm good at designing and things, but there must be girls out there a thousand times more talented then I am. I have no chance."

"You see. That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Tikki continued. "Your mind immediately thinks of bad things, and you believe that you don't have a chance when really you are better than any other girl! Your kind, and helpful and you always think of other people first, you're literally the only one who thinks that his jokes are funny, you design so you fit in with his family, and your brave and confident and you can stand up for yourself. But whenever something goes wrong, you automatically think it's your fault and make yourself fell bad. It's nothing to be ashamed of- in fact, it's perfectly normal for a teenage girl- but it is our weakness, so we're going to fix it."

"And you said that my weakness would be Chat Noir's strength. So does that mean that Chat is never insecure? I feel jealous."

"Not necessarily _never_ insecure, but less than you. The main thing is that he has the key to helping you overcome your weakness."

"Okay." Marinette turned to continue with her history assignment (In which she would have to give a speech with _Adrien_ ). The wind started to pick up, so Tikki closed all of the windows.

Just as she finished the PowerPoint, the rain started. It began as just a light drizzle, but slowly became harder and harder.

Thunder boomed.

Marinette glanced out the window, remembering that it was Chat's turn to patrol. "I need to go look for him." she said, homework forgotten.

"Spot's-"

There was an almighty _thump_ on her balcony. Marinette signalled for Tikki to hide in her purse and opened the trapdoor to the balcony to find a shivering, flashing ball of Chat Noir curled up on the tiles. She yanked him through the door and onto the floor in the middle of her bedroom before running into the bathroom and grabbing a heap of towels and dumping them on his body. She started to rub his hair dry as Chat towelled the rest of his body, Then she grabbed her blankets and wrapped it around his shoulders.  
"Thanks, Princess." Chat said, passing back his towel.

"Princess? Really?" Marinette laughed.

"Well… I thought it would be a good name for you. Do you not like it? I'll stop right now if you don't."

"No… no. I like it." Marinette smiled. She felt so relieved that her partner was safe and out of the thunderstorm that she was feeling silly and happy and reckless.

She only just remembered that she wasn't supposed to know about the weaknesses, before she gave herself away. That would have been hard to explain! "Why- why are you all sick Chat?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't see right through her charade. She was _hopeless_ at lying. "And why were you on my balcony?"

"Oh! Well, it's a pretty long story, but I have discovered that my Chat Noir powers don't work during thunderstorms and I didn't check the forecast before I left my house and… I saw your house and- now I'm here!"

Marinette giggled, wrapping her arms around him. "Silly kitty." she said. Turning on the heater and then moving over to the couch, she grabbed the TV remote. "It's only 7:00 and my parents are probably going to call me for supper any minute now. Do you want to watch a movie until the rain stops?"

"Wow, Marinette. That- that would be awesome. Thank you."

He picked a movie just as her parents called from downstairs. "Hey, um Marinette?" he asked, pushing the DVD in.

"Yeah?"

"Can you please bring me some cheese? Camembert, specifically?"

"Sure… do you like that kind of stuff?"

" _I_ don't, but my kwami-he's a little cat that turns me into Chat Noir- he likes to eat camembert. Actually, the only thing he ever eats is camembert. It makes my school bag smell _so bad_ , you have no idea."

Marinette laughed. "I'll bring some up for your smelly super-cat, sure."

"Thanks, Princess. You're the best."

Marinette ran down the stairs, bypassing her parents weird looks and grabbed some camembert out of the fridge. Her parents would probably start packing it in her lunch now, thinking that she had some kind of strange taste for this awful, stinky cheese. Oh well. She knocked on her own bedroom door (which felt more than a little but strange) and heard the movie being paused (or _pawsed,_ which is probably what Chat thought). There was a flash of green light and the door was opened by a small, flying black… thing.

Plagg didn't look like a cat. He didn't look a lot like Tikki either. He had huge green eyes and whiskers twice as long as his body. Plus, he was glaring at her in a very un-Tikki-like way.

Plagg zoomed up to her hear and whisper-yelled into it.

Look, little Lady Luck. I know who are and you know who I am so let's just keep all of that our little secret, okay?"

Wordlessly, she nodded and passed the cheese. The kwami ate half of it in less then a minute. It was a very awkward silence.

Tikki poked her head out of Marinette's purse. When she saw Plagg, she gave a little squeal and zoomed out to hug him. A big pointy smile appeared on Plagg's face.

"Plagg? What are you doing?" Chat asked. "Please don't torture Marinette; she's my friend." His voice was coming from behind the couch, so he couldn't possibly see Tikki and Plagg. Marinette moved passed the cuddling kwamis and sat back on the couch. "Do you want me to turn the movie back on until your bug-mouse-cat comes back?"

"Sure." She heard Chat turn around and knew that he was looking at her. An untransformed Chat Noir was standing right behind her! The urge to just turn around was so overpowering that she could barely think, and because of her decision as Ladybug she didn't now who he was.

She stubbornly sat facing the movie. On the screen a woman was standing in a park, holding someone's hand and laughing.

"Do you know where Plagg went?" Chat asked. his breath tickled her ear.

"P-Plagg?" Why was she stammering? The only person that she ever stammered around was Adrien. Not Chat. Never Chat.

"My kwami. His name is Plagg."

"Well, um, th-the bug-mouse-cat thing? I-I-I think he went d-downstairs."

"He might be seen! I have to go look!" she felt him stand up, his shadow falling across hers.

"N-no! I-it's fine. My parents a-are clo-closing up shop downstairs."

"Oh. Okay." he sat down again. "Marinette?"

"Y-yes?" Did her voice sound higher than normal?

"Why are you stuttering?"

"I don't know!" She wailed, putting her head in her hands.

"Princess? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything, I'm such an idiot-"

"No. No, Chat. It's fine. It's not your fault." she grabbed his hand from behind her and pulled him around the couch, still looking at her knees. This was the first time that she had ever seen his skin. His hand was covered in calluses- "Martial arts and basketball."- and there was a thin scar running down his middle finger and over his index knuckle. "What's the scar from?" Marinette gently ran her fingers over it.

"In the, uh, Darkblade attack one of his knights caught my hand with the edge of his sword. The cut and my suit fixed itself when Ladybug used her Lucky Charm, but it left a scar."

"Oh, Chat…" A piece of Marinette's heart broke at the thought of her kitty, her best friend, her other half being hurt when he was protecting her.

"It doesn't hurt, Princess! It's fine."

"No it's not!" she almost looked up. "You got hurt, kitty, and that's never okay."

"Marinette…"

There was a knock on the door. "It's me!" Plagg called before Adrien or Marinette could freak out.

"Plagg! Where were you? Oh, never mind. Claws out!"

Marinette shielded her eyes against the light, and then looked up to see Chat Noir back in his leather suit.

"What do you wear underneath that?" Marinette asked, trying to break the awkwardness.

Chat blushed. "I'll let you on a secret," he said, "but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

Marinette laughed, and it sounded exactly the same as Ladybug's. The sound did strange things to Chat's stomach.

"I promise."

"Well, not today, but sometimes I actually wear my pyjamas underneath my suit on patrols so that when I get home I can just flop onto my bed and sleep."

And that smile was almost exactly the same as the teasing one that Ladybug gave him when she found one of his jokes funny. Could it be- no. Life wasn't that simple.

"Will you- are you going now?"

Chat looked out the window. It had already stopped raining? He hadn't been checking at all.

 _'_ _Too busy distracted by your Princess.'_ a wicked voice said inside him, which he ruthlessly pushed to the back of his mind.

"I-yeah. I should go." He climbed out onto the balcony and unclipped his baton.

"Chat- wait!"

He paused, ready to leap away, balanced on the railing.

Marinette climbed up onto the balcony as well and walked towards him. She stepped close- very close.

"Will you come back again?" She asked. "If it rains when you're on patrol?"

"Are you sure?" Someone _wanted_ him to come over? And shy, cute Marinette of all people?

"Y-you can finish the movie!" Her smile wary, hopeful.

"Alright. I have patrol again tomorrow, so if the weather's bad I'll visit. Okay?"

She nodded furiously. "Okay."

Chat extended his baton to the rooftop across the street. "Goodnight, Princess."

Marinette hesitated, then rose up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek, barely a whisper just below his mask. Turning as red as a tomato but still smiling, she yelled out "Goodnight, Chat!" And disappeared back into her bedroom.

Adrien stood there, frozen.

 **Bahahahahahaha!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, this is a long chapter because lots of interesting things happen now. Thank you so much for reading and following and reviewing. You have no idea how special that makes me feel! Please enjoy.**

Marinette groaned and turned towards her alarm, which was blinking angrily at her as if to say: _You're half an hour late, Marinette! Hurry up!_ Tikki was shaking Marinette's shoulder and saying much the same thing. Marinette rolled out of bed, not really awake, and turned on the water in the shower with her pyjamas still on. She only realised this when her clothes became plastered to her skin; so she walked out of the shower, water dripping everywhere, and changed into her usual clothes and hung out the pyjamas to dry.

She stumbled downstairs, grabbed her lunch, kissed Papa on the cheek, walked halfway down the street, realised she'd forgotten her bag, purse and Tikki, so turned around and wandered back up the street to get her bag and purse, and headed towards school.

She was so out of it that she didn't notice when the light to cross the road went green and someone had to nudge her hip to get her to move; she didn't notice that Tikki was whispering furiously, and if you asked her what about Marinette would have had no idea; and she certainly didn't notice when Adrien's limousine arrived slightly later then usual.

As such, when Adrien hurriedly swung his door open, not waiting for Gorilla, Marinette smashed into it at full force.

All the other students walking up the stairs to the front doors turned around. Marinette didn't look at them; she couldn't bear them all laughing at her.

On the positive side, she was awake now.

Adrien hurriedly stepped out, already apologising. He had woken up half an hour late, much to the chagrin of both Nathalie and Gorilla, and had completely missed giving Plagg his usual semicircle if Camembert for breakfast, so the kwami only had a small amount of cheese in Adrien's bag to last him through the day, and wasn't at all happy about it. Adrien had been trying to placate Plagg and simultaneously avoid Gorilla listening in on the conversation, so he had been completely distracted when the car stopped and had therefore smacked poor Marinette in the face!

Marinette looked a bit dizzy. She was swaying back and forth. Adrien rather suspected she had a concussion to add to the slightly bleeding nose.

"I'm so sorry- I have the worst luck. Here! Let me help you." He said, grabbing Marinette's back and slinging it over his shoulder while subtly wrapping an arm around her waist in case Marinette decided to faint right then and there. She was leaning rather heavily on his shoulder.

Adrien nodded to Gorilla that he had everything under control, so the huge man smoothly got back into the driver's seat. Was that a small smile that could be seen through the car window as he drove off? No, Adrien decided. That was impossible. Gorilla never smiled, and besides, what was there to smile about?

"Adrien… it's not your fault. I wasn't looking. " Marinette whispered, her voice sounding slurred. "Adrien, my head hurts. And the world is spinning too fast. Make it stop."

"Of course, Princess,.' Adrien said, absently noting that he probably shouldn't use that name when he wasn't Chat. "Let's go to the sick bay, okay?."

Marinette nodded slowly and followed Adrien as he walked up the stairs to the front doors. He walked as quickly as Marinette could to the nurse, who immediately lay her down on one of the beds and ordered Adrien to tell Mme Bustier and call Marinette's parents.

Adrien did as instructed, strangely against leaving Marinette. Firmly, he told himself that she was in capable hands and hurried towards his classroom.

Clearly, everyone had already started, the teacher halfway through instructions when Adrien walked in, placing his back at the edge of his seat and giving Marinette's bag to Alya.

"Adrien." Mme Bustier said, "Thank you for joining us. Now all we need is Marinette, and we might actually have a full class for once!"

"Well, about that…" Adrien paused, then decided to plunge in. "Marinette is in the sick bay. I think she has a concussion."

Well, he had everyone's attention now.

"How did she get a concussion, Adrien?"

"Umm…"

Mme. Bustier looked at Adrien in a way that said that she wasn't going to believe any half-baked lie that he could think up on the spot. Adrien could feel a blush creeping down her neck. Soon his face would be completely pink.

"She was walking to school and I opened my car door without looking and I kind of… smacked her in the face."

The class erupted with mixed emotions. Ayla and Nino immediately requested to go to the sick bay, which Mme Bustier firmly denied, her face a mask of worry; Ivan, Mylene, Juleka and Rose were frantically whispering to each other in the corner; Max, Alix and Kyle looked torn between concern and amusement at Marinette's clumsiness; Plagg was quietly giggling from Adrien's bag, but stopped when the boy glared at him; Chloé and Sabrina were laughing their heads off, which kind of made Adrien want to punch them.

"Now, calm down, everyone!" Mme Bustier yelled, quieting everyone down. "Now, I would like you to copy down the notes on the board- Alya, please write down some notes for Marinette as well- while I called Marinette's parents. I'll be back in ten minutes." With a firm nod, she left the room.

Adrien glumly slid into his seat. Marinette was hurt, and it was entirely his fault, and he couldn't do anything about it. He slid out his book and started to write the notes down when Alya tapped him on the shoulder.

The look on her face could easily have been seen as simple concern, but something about made Adrien think that there was some sort of ulterior motive. "Adrien, can you please copy down the spare notes for Marinette? I'm sorry, but your handwriting is so much neater than mine and I'm already behind on my work."

"Of course!" Adrien replied, taking out a spare sheet of paper from his folder. At least now he had something to do, at least a small thing, that would help Marinette.

 _And now you have an excuse to see her again._ A hidden, evil voice whispered.

Adrien chose to ignore the hidden voice and just copied out the notes.

They were informed that Marinette had been shipped to the nearby hospital and had said she was feeling better during the second period, but none of them were allowed to visit her until recess. Adrien packed up and jogged down the street to the hospital as soon as the bell rang, feeling inexplicably nervous. It was only Marinette, and she's probably be so crowded with classmates that she wouldn't see him anyway. He'd just place the Science notes on her desk and leave.

However, when he entered her hospital room, there was only Alya sitting there, talking softly to Marinette, who was laying on the hospital bed in her normal clothes quietly, her purse hanging on the bedpost. Adrien placed the notes on the side table, fidgeting nervously. "Hey, Marinette. You feeling better?"

Marinette turned to look at him and smiled that kind of smile that had hit Chat with a ton of bricks last night. He paused, no longer remembering what he was going to say.

"I, uh… I mean, um, I brought you notes! From Science, so you wouldn't get behind." Adrien could feel heat ring up from his collar.

Alya, with a strange smile on her face, kissed Marinette on the cheek. "I think you two need some alone time." She said, backing out of the room. And then, quite unexpectedly (to Adrien anyway) he and Marinette were completely alone.

Nervously, Adrien sat down next her, wiping his hands on his jeans. "Are you less dizzy now? You said that you were really dizzy when we went to sick bay."

Marinette blinked, surprised. She didn't remember anything other than her blood nose and Adrien's hand (no doubt very helpfully) wrapped around her waist to stop her from falling over, how that feeling had sent tingles up and down her spine and hadn't really helped with her overall stability. And then she had been fussed over by the nurse (and by Tikki) and made to stay completely still and in the dark until her parents had come, followed quickly by the ambulance.

"The doctors said that I have no lasting head trauma but I'll probably have a huge bruise. Thank you for looking after me this morning."

Adrien blushed. He looked uncomfortable. Did he not like being here? Perhaps he had just come to check that she was okay, and now he knew that she was he wanted to leave. But of course he was Adrien, so he would never be that impolite.

Blaming it on the head trauma, she asked him directly, "Do you not want to talk to me? If you don't, you can leave; I'm fine with it."

"No! No. I like talking to you, and I really do want to make sure that you're okay. It's my fault that your here in the first place." Adrien relaxed slightly, smiling his imperfect, lopsided, _real_ smile, not the fake one he used on his photoshoots.

"What do you mean? I was the one that wasn't looking. It's not your fault at all." Marinette replied, trying to settle her nerves after the full-on power of Adrien's happiness.

"I smacked you in the face!"

"I walked into your car door!"

Both of them paused, then simultaneously started laughing and laughing and laughing until Marinette's chest hurt and her headache resurfaced. And they laughed until more people arrived from school with presents and chocolate and cards that had been bought in the hospital gift shop ten minutes ago, but nonetheless were from the heart. Soon Marinette was drowning in teddies and flowers and being hugged from all sides.

Adrien retreated to the corner of the room and sat in the chair, happy to simply watch. Every so often, Marinette would turn to look at him, blasting him with one of her million-watt smiles, making him fell as if there was no other place in the world that he would rather be. He stayed until he was absolutely going to be late for class before saying goodbye. "I'll be back at lunch!" He called, waving and running as fast as he dared down the flights of stairs.

During class he was completely distracted, thinking of something nice he could bring Marinette, not concentrating at all on what the teachers were saying. Alya had long since given up on him and was copying down an extra set of notes herself, which he somehow found in his own bag at the end of the period- he could only hope that she hadn't seen Plagg, who was sleeping in the side pocket without any care as to who would see him.

Finally, Adrien decided that he would call on Marinette's parents and ask them for a nice lunch that he could share with her. That was rather a strange encounter; her parents had been so nice and polite, but they had been looking at each other strangely whenever he said Marinette's name and had been continually giving him extra sweets and pies, saying that "Marinette would have wanted you to have them." Plus, when he had left the shop (with a cookie in each hand and a huge bag of food slung over his shoulder) Adrien could have sworn he saw Mr Dupain give his wife a bank note with an air of amusement.

He walked up the stairs of the hospital to see Nino and Alya sitting on either side of Marinette, so he pulled over a table from the corner of the room and the four of them spread all the food out like a feast, eating as fast as they could before a nurse came in and told them to stop getting crumbs everywhere. Then, laughing, they packed up the food and Nino brought out a pack of cards, placing the pile on Marinette's legs and playing Go Fish. Then Hearts, Black Queen, and others that Adrien had never heard of. They even played Poker using the last cookies as money- Marinette had one of the best poker faces of anyone Adrien had ever seen, where as the other three tried to keep a straight face and ended up giggling for absolutely no reason.

They had just started a game of 500 (which Adrien honestly had no idea how to play- why were there so many rules?) when there was a dulled roar from outside and a huge earthquake that rocked the whole building. Looking outside, Adrien saw a large man- much larger than should be possible- standing in the square below dressed in large brown overalls, booming out something incomprehensible and smashing his fists into the pavement, creating enormous cracks in the concrete and making more earthquakes.

Adrien immediately went into superhero mode, all but pushing Alya and Nino out of the room and sending them down the stairs, promising to help Marinette. But when he got back and tried to help Marinette out of bed she almost fell over, holding hr hand over her mouth like she was about to vomit. "Go, Adrien!" she whispered, lying back on the bed. "You'll be safer outside. I have to stay here!"

"But… you're in danger! You'll get hurt!"

"I'll be fine- I just want you to be safe, okay?"

"I can't leave you!" Adrien said, tugging on Marinette's arm.

"You have to. Go! Go, go go!"

Adrien ran down the stairs, but rather than going outside he ducked into a side door and opened his bag.

Plagg zoomed out.

" Oh, I can't leave you! Woe is me" The kwami echoed mockingly. "My god, Adrien, you're so cheesy- and that's coming from _me,_ of all people. You do realise-"

"No time to talk, Plagg! Claws out!"

Marinette watched as Adrien went down the stairs, his face a mask of worry. _For her!_ Little Marinette of all people!

But there was no time to think about that now. "Tikki!" Marinette frantically whispered. The kwami zooms out of your purse. "I can't let you go, Marinette! You still have concussion!"

"It's only a very small one, and hopefully I'll finish off this guy and get back on the hospital before I start making anything worse. We don't have a choice, Tikki! Spots on!"

Marinette felt her body fill with the power, the energy that came with being a magical superhero, and soon Ladybug was standing there, ready to take on anything. She moved some pillows underneath the bed to make it look like there was a body there.

Ladybug jumped out the window, catching a street lamp wtih her yo-yo to slow her fall. She landed just behind the akuma- a man in a suit that seemed to be made out of rocks and with a mining lamp on his head- and yelled out at the man, spinning her yo-yo.

The rock-man roared and punched the floor again. Ladybug stumbled, her balance not what it should be due to her concussion. A hand grabbed her shoulder just before she fell over, and she looked up to see Chat Noir.

"Are you alright? You look pale."

"I'm fine." Ladybug got her balance back and yanked her hand out of his. There was a flash of hurt on Chat's face before it was smoothed over by his mask of serenity that Ladybug only ever saw him use when he was deeply wounded.

"I'm so sorry, kitty." Ladybug hugged him. "Don't mind me- I've been feeling a bit sick today."

"Are you sure you're okay to fight?"

"I'll be fine. Let's just finish the akuma and then I'm going to get a painkiller." Ladybug said, trying to lighten the situation. Chat still looked worried, though.

Rock-man roared, forcing both of the superhero to concentrate. Wanting to get this over and done with, Ladybug summoned her Lucky Charm- a megaphone- and quickly deduced where the akumatised object was: inside the head lamp.

"The head lamp!" she yelled to Chat, who nodded and summoned his Cataclysm. Ladybug wrapped her yo-yo around his arm, distracting him by yelling at him through the megaphone while Chat flipped and landed on the akuma's head. The akuma caught Ladybug in the side of the head, making her stumble back a few paces and giving her a dull headache, but she returned to the battle immediately, waving off Chat's concerned look. The moved together like a well-oiled machine, instinctively knowing what the other was going to do. Chat destroyed the head lamp and exposed a small slip of paper that read 'You have been fired. Please evacuate this building.' Chat tossed the paper to Ladybug, who tore it and purified the akuma that came out.

Chat jumped down as Ladybug threw the megaphone into the air and all of the cracks in the concrete disappeared. He held his hand out for a "Pound it!" but instead Ladybug grabbed his hand and sagged into him, whispering "I don't feel so good, Chat."

Chat instinctively wrapped an arm around her, taking most of Ladybug's weight. He could tell why she was dizzy; the akuma had hit her hard enough to create a bruise on the side of her face, along her jaw and just under her ear, the skin bright red. "You're going to a hospital. Now." Chat looked over at the hospital, now completely rebuilt thanks to Ladybug's Lucky Charm. Using up with his baton, he propelled them both through an open window and into a vacated hospital room.

Laying Ladybug on the bed, Chat threw the covers over her. Her head rolled, her eyes half-closed. "I'll be okay, Chat." she slurred.

"I don't want to leave you." Chat whispered, pushing sweat-soaked strands of hair away from her face.

"Do you remember, in the rain when we found out about the weaknesses? How I said that if we were going to find out our identities, this wouldn't be the right time?" Chat nodded.

"Well, this is the same thing. I don't want you to know who I am because you don't have a choice or because I don't have a choice. I want the moment to be perfect." Ladybug smiled at her partner.

"But… do you mean that you will show me your real identity?"

"Yes, I will. I promise, kitty."

"When?" Chat gasped, the euphoria of possibly knowing who his partner in crime- his other half- was, overwhelming him.

"Soon. Very soon. But you have to go! I'm going to de-transform."

Nodding, still shocked, Chat backed out of the room. He jumped into a cupboard filled with cleaning supplies, de-transformed and immediately thought of Marinette. Adrien raced up the stairs and threw open the door to Marinette's room. There was her purse, her enormous pile of pillows, the remnants of their lunch.

And no Marinette.


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as Chat closed the door behind him, Ladybug opened her eyes and sat up, ignoring the way her head swam and what felt like tiny people were jackhammering their way through her skull. _Hopeless, I am so hopeless right now._ Her suit flickered once- or was that her vision? She wasn't sure. She knew that one of her friends would arrive any minute- in fact, there was Alya jogging up the front steps now- and she had to be back as Marinette, back in her room before anyone could wonder where she had gone during the akuma attack.

She took one step and collapsed, Ladybug's suit disappearing and Tikki bursting out of her earrings. "Don't move, Marinette!"

she whispered, floating in front of her face so that Marinette couldn't look away. "I refuse to let you move."

"I have to go up to my room, Tikki." she said. "I have no excuse as to why I would be here, on the floor of a random room, feeling like I'm going to throw up."

The tiny people swapped their jackhammers for dynamite.

"Don't move Marinette! You're hurting yourself!''

"One flight of stairs, Tikki. Then I absolutely promise to lie down and sleep for twelve hours, even if an akuma crashes through the window."

Tikki inwardly fought with this for agreeing. "You promise?" she whispered, hiding in Marinette's pocket.

"I promise. I am 100% certain that there is nothing I want to do more than climb those stairs to my hospital room and sleep forever."

There was a quiet giggle from her jacket. Marinette grabbed the bed post with her hand and pulled herself up onto her feet, feeling the dynamite explode all at once. Waiting until the pain subsided, she looked over to the door. No more than five steps. Taking a deep breath, she stumbled as fast as she could to the doorway, catching the doorhandles and holding onto it for dear life while the world tipped. Bile rose up in her throat, but she forced it back down.

 _Three steps to the stairwell; two hands on the banister._

 _Take it one step at a time; ignore the pain. Come on, Marinette! One more step- you're almost there._

 _Hopeless. I feel so hopeless._

 _Breathe, breathe. One more set of stairs and the we're done._

 _Alright, alright. Just pause and then you have to get back up gain. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Ready? Up!_

 _Take one more step! Ignore the pain! One more, one more!"_

 _Hopeless, hopeless, hopeless._

 _You're almost at the top- so close!_

 _No! We're basically at the top! You can't give up now!_

 _Hopeless, hopeless!_

 _Just keep moving. Two more steps, one more…_

Marinette stood at the top of the stairs, triumphantly gripping on to the banister. She over away from the staircase and down the corridor. There! The door to her room, standing slightly open. Was someone in there? She couldn't explain why she was out in the corridor, not in the hospital bed where she was supposed to be. She could barely keep her cool under Alya's reporter-skills when she had a whole story fabricated. Shrugging, Marinette decided to face the problem head on, she moved towards the entrance, hand curling around the door handle- which stated to move under her hand. The door swung open too fast, and even Marinette's superhero-reflexes couldn't save her.

Adrien opened the door, ready to run to Marinette's aid while simultaneously wanting to strangle the girl for breaking her promise about staying safe inside the hospital room. There was a dull thunk on the other side of the door and Marinette was there, on the floor, curled up in a tiny ball, groaning. Adrien crouched down, holding her face and propping her up with his other arm. Already, a nasty bruise on the bridge of her nose was forming, the edges turning from red to purple. "Marinette? Marinette, talk to me! Are you all right?"

"Adrien… my head hurts." Marinette whispered. "And the world is spinning round and round and round… make it stop Adrien."

"Of course." he replied, simply thankful that she was conscious even if her speech was even more slurred than Ladybug's had been. "I just need you to move a tiny bit.'' He moved her head so that it was resting on his knees and shifted her arms so that she was more comfortable.

"What do you want to do now, Adrien?" Marinette said with a little giggle.

"I suppose we should just wait until a doctor or a nurse come by." Surely someone would come soon- this was a hospital, for goodness sake!

"Is everything still spinning?"

"Less. Thanks, Adrien." Marinette's head flopped to the side, one of her arms wrapping around Adrien's waist. Adrien ignored the tingling feeling that ran down his spine at that touch. "You're really warm, Adrien, and I feel really cold. How are you so warm?"

"Are you cold? Do you want my jacket?" hers was thin and probably didn't help much to keep the cold out.

"No! If I do that you'll be cold and then we'll all be cold. But you're always hot. I think you're hot, Adrien."

Of all the conversations he had expected to have with Marinette, this was definitely not one of them. Ignoring the blush creeping up his neck, Adrien said "Do you really think that, Marinette?"

A small nod. "Mmm hmmm. And so nice, too. Nice and funny and hot."

"Oh." What else was there to say to something like that?

The was a thump, thump, thump of someone running and a moment later Alya came around the corner. "Oh my god, Marinette!" she said, falling to her knees beside them. "Is she all right?''

Marinette's head turned towards the sound of her friends voice and held out a hand which Alya immediately grabbed, running a thumb along the girl's knuckles.

"I think so. I, uh, found her out here. She might have an even worse concussion than before, but she's still conscious, which I think is a good thing." Adrien avoided Alya's eyes.

Ever the aspiring-journalist, Alya would let her semi-conscious friend stop her from noticing a possible scoop. "You just… found her out here? On the floor?"

Adrien nodded a bit too vigorously. His cheeks flushed a bright pink.

"Come on, Adrien. You're a terrible liar- in fact, the only person I know who is worse than you would be our friend here." she gestured to Marinette, who had buried her face into Adrien's waist again. Idly, Adrien wondered what Alya would think of that, and decided that it wouldn't matter until Marinette was safe.

"I kind of… slammed the door in her face." the truth came out in a rush of words. "I was so shocked that she wasn't in the room there that I panicked and threw the door open and she was standing right there and I feel so _bad_ and Marinette's probably going to kill me when she's, you know, back to normal, and-"

"Woah, Adrien. Calm down. I'm going to find a doctor and I want you to stay perfectly still with Marinette there until I come back, okay?" Alya left, but not without discreetly taking a billion photos of Marinette wrapped around Adrien to torment her best friend when she was properly awake.

Adrien ran a hand through Marinette's hair, dislodging the hair tie and causing her hair to fall in waves to just below her shoulders. She was so pretty, with her huge blue eyes and her perfect smile and her wavy hair that was always styled perfectly, not a single hair in those pigtails out of place. He'd always had a secret fantasy of undoing them, running his fingers through the silly ink of her hair, maybe tugging it until their faces where so close that they breathed the same breath before he…

Oh no.

It couldn't be. And yet, there the feelings were, as plain as daylight. Adrien had and enormous, secret crush on Marinette. A crush that not even he had realised he had, a crush that, now noticed, bowled him over completely. He had an enormous, secret, life changing crush on the sweet, talented, clever, beautiful, shy girl that sat behind him in class and smelled like sweets and freshly baked bread.

And he had an enormous, secret life-changing crush on his secret superhero partner, the strong, clever beautiful, ever-surprising girl who smelled like sugar and the night breeze.

Oh no.

Before Adrien could have a small panic attack Alya skidded around the corner again, a man dressed in green swabs on her heels. Adrien did as he was ordered, not thinking to ask questions, and just followed numbly as the man picked Marinette up, told Alya to hold her head and placed her back in the bed. A nurse came ten minutes later, but rather than going for Marinette she stopped in front of Adrien and guided him to a chair, saying how his girlfriend was in good hands. Adrien was still in such shock that he didn't even care. In fact, a tiny part of him glowed at the thought of Marinette being his girlfriend, while the rest of him felt terribly, horribly guilty at the thought of him not being completely faithful to Ladybug.

Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug. Marinette. _Ladybug. Marinette._

Later, Nino arrived with more sweets, still piping hot from the Dupain-Cheng bakery, the best bakery in Paris. The three friends ate it together while watching over an unconscious Marinette, who now had not only a black eye but a bruise running along the bridge of her nose _and_ one along the side of her jaw and ear, which no-one could quite work out where it had come from. Someone had given her enough pain medication to pass out, but occasionally she would toss her head and murmur something unintelligible. Each time she did this, Adrien felt a little pang in his stomach.

Eventually, Alya and Nino decided that they had to go home, with Nino crashing at Alya's place. They tried to convince Adrien to come with them, but he stubbornly refused, saying "It's my fault-twice!- that she's in here. And I don't want to her to wake up alone."

Alya and Nino looked at their two friends and realised something that Adrien himself had only figured out in hour ago. Alya immediately wanted to interview/interrogate Adrien, so Nino none-too-gently pulled her out the door, laughing silently at both his best friend and what no doubt would be an enormously awkward encounter when Marinette woke up.

Adrien watched his friends go with a sort of apprehension. He had wanted them gone so that he could be alone with Marinette, but as soon as they were he felt worried. What if Marinette went back to being her usual self who disliked him so much that she couldn't speak a full sentence out of hatred? What if she hadn't hated him before but she did now because he had given her not one but two concussions? If she did hate him, he probably deserved it after what he had done to her.

And Ladybug… what had happened to her? Did she just have a headache or was she in hospital for a concussion the same way that Marinette was? A million unanswerable questions raced through Adrien's head.

Marinette moaned and moved slightly, a grimace of pain on her face. Adrien hurried over to the side of the bed and looked down at her, except for her body moving as she breathed, she was completely still.

Adrien sat down next to the bed, moving the covers slightly s that they were ore wrapped around Marinette. she looked so small and fragile when she was like this, her skin as pale as the sheets around it and her bruises like blooms of ink across paper and her hair spread across the pillow like reeds highlighted only by moonlight. She had her hands tucked under her cheek and her eyes closed.

Adrien sighed and moves away towards the armchair in the corner of the room. As he stood up, fingers wrapped themselves around his wrist. He looked back at the bed just as Marinette's eyes half-opened. "Are you going away?" she whispered, the sound raspy.

Adrien felt a twang in his stomach. "Of course not." he replied. "I'll be in the chair just there all night, and I wont leave until you wake up tomorrow."

Marinette blinked and nodded. Adrien went to move away again, but Marinette's grip was surprisingly strong. Just like Ladybug, she was tiny but her muscles were made of steel. "Don't leave, Adrien." she said. "You can stay her in the bed, with me."

"I couldn't do that. There's not enough room, and-"

"Don't be silly, Adrien." Marinette tugged sharply on Adrien' arm, almost causing him to fall on top of her. "There's plenty of room. Please stay?"

"Marinette!"

One more tug, and Adrien was on the bed next to her, his arm trapped, Marinette's head pressed into the corner of his arm. He froze. Marinette made a little murmuring sound and buried her nose deeper into Adrien's shoulder. Accepting defeat and feeling strangely happy about it, Adrien shifted slightly, stretching out to the very end of the tiny bed to make himself more comfortable. He could feel little puffs of breath across his neck, and the arm across his body was heavy and warm.

Adrien watched the last rays of sunset highlight Marinette's dark hair, then as the orange faded into moon-silver. His body relaxed, fitting against Marinette's seamlessly, their breathing synchronised as if they were simply the same person. Then Adrien closed heavy eyelids and succumbed to darkness.

 ***fangirl screaming***


	8. Chapter 8

**Yay for Monday (not)! Well, for all the students reading I'm back to school now, so I'll be busy again. I may have to post less chapters per week but lets just see how we go for the moment. Enjoy!**

Tikki opened her eyes slowly, confused as to why she was upside-down. She poked her head out of Marinette's purse warily, noting the pristine white walls and tiled floor of the hospital room. Moving out of the bag at the foot of the bed, she grabbed her second-last cookie and floated up.

Marinette's face was hidden beneath her hair, which was spread out over Adrien's shirt. The boy's hand held fast to her waist, the arm trapped under Marinette's body, the other hand's fingers tangled in her hair; he was all but wrapped around Marinette, his whole body turned towards her as if she was sunshine.

"Good Evening, My Lady."

Tikki ricocheted, dropping her half-eaten cookie. Plagg swooped down and deftly caught the cookie just before it hit the bedspread and floated back up to Tikki, presenting it with an elaborate bow.

Tikki mock-glared at her partner and took back the biscuit. "You didn't have to scare me like that!" she growled.

Plagg's antennae drooped.

Tikki giggled and, finishing the cookie, hugged Plagg tight. "Silly kitty."

Plagg smiled and twined one of his whiskers around her antennae, the contact creating a shower of little golden sparks.

They both looked down at their two Chosen.

"How stupid could they possibly be?" Plagg laughed.

Tikki nodded, grinning. "It's as if the magic that protects their identities has increased tenfold. They're together every weekday and every night for patrols. It simply wouldn't be possible for two people be so close and yet have no idea." She agreed. "Marinette certainly has no idea who Chat Noir is."

"My boy is the same. Although I think thats more due to natural obliviousness than any outside inhibition." Plagg added. "The boy has absolutely no idea. The kind of clues I've dropped- the hair, the freckles, it's all so bluntly obvious I feel a blind man could tell who she was in a heartbeat, but my Adrien can't!"

"Marinette isn't... quite as bad." Tikki said defensively. "And your Adrien is much better at keeping secrets hidden than my Marinette."

"I feel it'll take them years to work out their identities."

"I would almost help them along if it wasn't for…." Tikki drifted off, remembering. Plagg nodded. The one and only time the two kwamis had tried to change when the time super heroes revealed themselves had ended in disastrous results.

They paused for a moment, the silence sad.

Suddenly Tikki's maternal instincts flared up. "Adrian must be uncomfortable," she said. "All dressed in his shoes and everything."

"Nah. He can just stay there. It'll serve him right for not giving me enough cheese." Plagg said as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Plagg!" Tikki gasped, eyes wide. "How could you say such a thing?"

Plagg's expression changed from smug to embarrassed.

"Why would you do something like that?" Tikki pressed " I know you better than anyone else, and you are really not like that!"

Plagg nodded, eyes downcast "I - I just-"

Tikki floated over, wrapping her arms around her partner and squeezing him tight. Plagg hiccuped.

"I just couldn't bear it, Tikki." he whispered "If Adrien - If it happens to him as well. He- he's my favourite. I couldn't bear it if I cared for another Chat Noir and he died. Just like last time these Weaknesses played up!"

Tikki wiped a tear from her eye and put on her bossiest voice on. "Don't think like that, Plagg! Even if it does happen- which it won't, because we're prepared this time and Master Fu knows what he's doing- there's no need to dwell on the bad things. Alright, you untie the laces and I'll pull the shoe off."

In the end, it took both of them to get the shoes off, and after much effort they gave up on removing his jacket.

Plagg slid the belt off and Adrien moved slightly. Tikki hid behind the bed head, but Adrian just curled closer to Marinette, a tiny smile on his face.

"Relax, My Lady." Plagg murmured. He came behind her, the last cookie in one hand and a small bit of cheese in the other. "Shall we have a dinner in the moonlight?" He asked, gesturing to the open window.

Tikki nodded and moved to the windowsill. The two kwamis sat there, quietly talking about everything they hadn't been able to tell each other since they gave their Miraculous to each of the two teenagers currently squished together only 3 metres away.

Just as the first rays of sun appeared on the horizon Tikki fell asleep on Plagg's shoulder. Plagg, mostly asleep himself, carried them both to Adrian's satchel. The kwamis cuddled together admist the books, pens, a picture of Adrian's mother and one heart-shaped, pink love letter.

Marinette woke up first, which she was extremely thankful for. Her head still pounded terribly, but it had improved over night. Marinette could move her head without swooning, and whilst her head felt awful her body was relaxed and warm. Sun was only reaching just inside the room, and the sounds of the hospital sounded distant and somehow less real than this silent moment between Marinette and Adrien, just the two of them together.

She knew she should be carefully extracting herself from the blonde boy wrapped around her, half wrapped underneath her with his hands locked around her hips. He smelled like animal fur and fresh, clean boy. Marinette almost giggled at the stab of envy she felt for him to be so perfect when he was asleep, whilst she probably had morning breath and a bird's nest for a signature hairstyle.

As she lifted up her head Adrien made a strange little sound, almost like a purr.

Marinette put her head back where it had been on Adrien's chest. She could feel it now, and he was definitely purring. The vibrations shook his chest with the soft, continuous sound.

Other than that the room was quiet...quiet but not silent. There was a noise in the corner of the room that seemed to be coming from Adrien's satchel. It was almost as if people where talking inside it.

 _What is Tikki doing?_

Marinette tried to get to get up, but her head swam terribly and she wouldn't sit up completely because of Adrian's arm. But she could sit up enough that she could see the blue bag in the corner of the room.

"Tikki!" Marinette whispered furiously "What are you doing in Adrien's bag?"

The whispers stopped, for a moment, then started even faster. A book fell out of the bag, followed by Tikki who looked adorably rumpled with her tired eyes and antennae poking around in the wrong directions. "Hey Marinette!" She whispered.

A small black hand appeared out of the bag and pulled the book back in. Marinette watched it out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you feeling better? Is your head still hurting? Do you feel like you're going to be sick?" Now awake and back to her usual mothering self, Tikki floated over and pushed on Marinette's shoulder with all her might until she lay flat again. Marinette smiled. Adrien smiled as well, and wriggled closer to her. His hair, soft and shimmering in the first sunlight of the day, tickled Marinette's shoulder.

The was a thump outside and the sound of someone walking along the hall and Marinette suddenly realised who was wrapped around her in a hospital bed.

She screamed and pushed as hard as she could at Adrien, who, jolting awake at the sound, opened his eyes in shock before sliding off the bed covers and landing on the floor.

"I'm on the floor." He said quietly.

"I-I'm so, so sorry A-Adrien." Marinette whispered.

Adrien blinked at her.

The door opened. A nurse walked through the door, scribbling on a clipboard, but when she saw Adrien she stopped.

Adrien scrambled to his feet. "I'm sorry Miss. I came in early this morning to say hello to Marinette before I have my photo shoot because I won't bee seeing her all day otherwise but my photoshoot starts in approximately ten minutes so I'll have to be leaving now bye." Adrien said in one big breath as he picked up his bag, smiled shyly and ran out of the room. The sound of his footsteps echoed down the stairwell and disappeared.

"But I only just opened the doors for visitors." The nurse said to herself.

Marinette stayed in the hospital for another two days. Nino and Alya visited her whenever they got the chance, but Adrien didn't come back. Nino always made excuses for his best friend, but he was terrible at lying and Marinette knew that Adrien was avoiding her.

Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng took their daughter home that afternoon and refused to take her to school the next day despite the fact that the doctors had said that she was now almost completely healed (being Ladybug certainly had its advantages). Both of her parents had agreed that she was have a quiet weekend and go back to school next Monday. All of her school projects had been cancelled; she felt almost stress-free.

Marinette had wanted to argue, but secretly she was relieved. Yesterday morning when she had realised that she didn't have to see Adrien she had felt guiltily relieved. She hadn't wanted to see him around all of their friends, when both of them would be all flustered and awkward again. That feeling when she had first woken up in the hospital bed, of someone- even subconciously- holding her so closely, making her feel protected and cherished, was a warm, brilliant glow that melted through her bones like hot chocolate.

Marinette smiled and held the memory close to her heart. Then she wrote everything in her dairy so that she would never forget it and, with Tikki peering over her shoulder, locked the diary in its box firmly so that the happiness would never leave her. From now on, whenever she thought of Adrien she was sure that that memory would come to her first. "It was simply perfect." She told Tikki, who smiled and nodded.

Despite the sunshine streaming into the bedroom and the calm joy in her bloodstream Marinette began to feel a pounding in her head.

Realising that the painkillers she had taken in hospital must be wearing off, she put her diary box away, kissed her Adrien-themed screen saver and walked out onto her balcony. She swallowed one pill and stretched out along her deck chair, Tikki tucked into her elbow. The sun was warm, the breeze was quiet, and Marinette promised herself that she wouldn't think of anything. _An hour just for me,_ she told herself.

Starting to feel the painkillers working, Marinette turned on some music from her phone and closed her eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Chat Noir took one last look at the screen of his baton before sighing and flipping it closed. He had hoped that Ladybug would meet him before he started his patrol to assure him that she was okay, but perhaps she didn't really car whether he thought knew that she was safe or not.

 _Don't be silly,_ told himself firmly. _She's probably just too busy with her civilian life to slip away and call you. And besides, she texted to say that she had been to the doctors and they'd said she was fine. That counts as caring, right?_

But oh, how he wished he could have been there! How he wished he could have come and visited her, or sent her one of those giant teddy bears. Anything more than just a text.

Chat wondered about the giant teddy bear. Would Ladybug be the kind of girl who like that sort of present? He decided she would be.

Plagg piped up. It was always strange to hear his kwami's voice as Chat Noir- the noise seemed to surround him and echo form the very tips of his ears to his tail. Added to the heightened hearing his Chat Noir powers gave him and the product was slightly unsettling.

 _"Let's go south-west, towards Versailles."_ Plagg said. _"We'll circle the city and end up near school."_

Chat nodded, then remembered that Plagg couldn't see him. "Sounds like a plan." He said and then pushed off the roof he'd been sitting on.

It was always exhilarating flying through the the air as a superhero. It was freedom, pure and simple. Just for fun, he leaped down the road along the street lamps, pouncing upon each as if he were a true cat pouncing on a beam of light. Although the sky was now dark, the air was still warm and there was no breeze.

Chat stopped just next to a train station on the edge of the city. He listened hard, but all he heard were cars and machines and people shouting excitedly. There were no screams, no roars, no signs of destruction.

 _No akumas here,_ Chat thought, and continued onwards. He passed people, dark streets, laughter, rich-smelling restaurants. College girls in heels and short skirts running after boyfriends. No screaming, no terror.

Chat smiled. Protecting people was so easy when there was nothing to protect them from!

He paused in the courtyard of the Notre Dame. The wind had picked up slightly, carrying the smells of a nearby bakery.

It was somewhere near here that Ladybug had first found him under a park bench. With Marinette and Ladybug and his discovery that he loved both of them, Chat could barely believe that only a fortnight had passed. It seemed simply impossible.

Remembering the horror of the sickness in the rain, Chat looked behind him.

Black clouds formed on the horizon, looking menacing and smug. As if he was in a movie, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. The black clouds moved closer. Chat felt the chill all over his body. His ring beeped, once, as if in warning.

Chat surveyed his options. He was right in the middle of the city. His house was too far away-the rain would hit him long before he got back home. Nino's house was somewhere nearby, as was Alya's… but he couldn't go there, not as Chat Noir. And they would be confused, their parents would call his father to pick him up when he was meant to be in his room, sleeping…

Perhaps he could protect himself from here? Take shelter somewhere until the rain stops? School was reasonably close- he could land in the courtyard, go inside where he and Plagg would be warm. But what if it was locked? He would have nowhere else to go and the rain would be upon him immediately.

Chat could hear the rain now. It felt as if a waterfall was heading towards him, a wall of thundering water ready to squash him like beetle.

Suddenly, he remembered, like a bolt of lightning. Marinette. Her house was just near here, just past school, but if he pushed, went as fast as he could possibly go he might just arrive there dry!

 _But she has a concussion- which you gave her! You don't want to put her in that kind of position! She might resent you._

He remembered her face, looking so strong and beautiful-just like Ladybug, he thought.

No. She had been pure Marinette.

 _"Come back again… if it rains when you're on patrol. Okay?"_

 _"_ Can we get there fast enough?" He asked Plagg.

 _"_ _Well we can't if you keep hesitating! Go!"_

Chat took off, running across roofs, leaping over chimneys, using his pole to skip buildings entirely. More than once he felt as if he was going to fall, to smash upon the ground broken. But he righted himself and ran faster.

The storm was closer now. Chat could hear it bouncing off metal pipes, car windows, roof tiles. A drop of water hit his beach and although it had only touched leather Chat hissed in pain.

Marinette house suddenly seemed too far away. _I'm useless. No-one will care if I disappear altogether._ Perhaps he could just give up here, not continue.

Marinette eyes glared at him. _Don't you dare scare me like that again!_

And Ladybug: _You're my partner, kitty. I can't do any of this without you._

Marinette's house seemed to glow in the distance like a torchlight in a tunnel. But the rain was so cold and heavy…

Chat stood up straighter and started running again. Marinette's balcony seemed simultaneously so close and so, so far away.

He slipped on the wet roof tiles, but righted himself and ran faster. The rain, shocked that its plan was being foiled, beat down harder and harder. It had become a race to Marinette's house, and the punishment for losing was death.

But Marinette's house was now a mere two roofs away. With one great final effort, Chat pushed himself harder.

Just here! He gripped the roof tiles to land onto the balcony, but just as he did the claws on his suit became bare hands. Only for a moment, but that was enough to throw him off and send him hurtling down…

Marinette opened one eye as a raindrop landed on her nose. She sneezed. Tikki lifted her head from where she was curled up next to Marinette's arm.

Another drop landed in her knee. The air was so much colder than when she had fallen asleep. Cursing the ever-changing weather, she turned off the music on her phone and sat up straight.

Chat Noir hurtled out of nowhere and bounced on the railing of the balcony, tipping forward to the street below.

Using all of her Ladybug reflexes, Marinette yanked him backwards.

They tumbled together through the bedroom window and onto the bed.

Marinette took a deep breath. She felt dizzy, and panicked; but just as quickly it passed. She blinked and into focus came one black, gloved hand. The ring on it showed a whole paw.

Good. That meant that he was safe. That he wasn't slowly getting more and more sick from the Weakness in some dark alleyway.

She could feel his breath on the top of his head. One black-gloved hand came up to rest on her shoulder.

 _For once,_ Marinette thought, _you're not running off or keeping secrets or throwing yourself in harm's way. For once, I have you right where I want you._

"Marinette? Marinette, are you okay?"

"Chat, I'm fine. Don't sound so worried!" Marinette lifted her head. Chat's huge green eyes stared back at her, worried. She reached out a hand to touch his cheek, and he leaned into her palm. "I'm okay. You're okay. Everything is fine."

"Are you sure? It's just that, I heard from one of my friends that you got a concussion the other day and I don't want to make you feel sick again-"

"Chat! Just shoosh. Everything is cured now. I promise I won't get sick again. Not now, not ever."

He smiled.

Marinette pushed herself off his body and jumped down off her bed. "Well, look what the cat dragged in." She teased, channelling Ladybug's confidence. Chat's eyes opened wide in shock. "A girl telling me cat puns? I must be dreaming."

"Well, don't try and wake up anytime soon, because look what I rented from the video store!" She held up the DVD case in her hand.

"That's… the first season of Sailor Moon?"

"Yes! In sub. You talked about it so much last time that I thought we could watch it together."

"Princess… that's perfect."

There was so much more that he wanted to say, but how could he? Where to start? Where to stop?

"Come on… sit!" Marinette pushed the disc into the DVD player and patted the seat next to her.

As the opening theme started playing, Chat vaulted off the bed to sit next to Marinette. He put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. The subtitles scrolled across the screen in poorly-translated French.

Chat kept his eyes on the screen even as he felt Marinette slowly fall asleep on his shoulder, one of her arms around his lower back and the other on his chest. He didn't look even when she started to make adorable little squeaks and nuzzled his collar bone.. He only stroked her hair out of its pigtails and drew circles on her back with his fingertips. When the third episode had finished, he paused the screen and finally looked down at the girl sleeping on his shoulder.

As he had expected, he simply couldn't resist. He brushed a kiss over her cheekbone, her eyelids, on the shell of her ear. Then he scooped her up and placed her on the bed, removing her jacket and shoes and pulling the blankets over her.

His ring beeped.

He shut the trapdoor and looked for something he could do to help his Princess. He noticed a pile of magazine cutouts and posters on her desk. They were all pictures of ad in the spring, summer and autumn collections. She must really love his father's work.

His ring beeped again. Three minutes left.

Marinette groaned and turned over, half of the basket falling off. "Chat…" he thought she whispered.

The ring showed only one more claw. It beeped twice, then Chat Noir disappeared.

Adrien sat on the edge of Marinette's bed. She looked like a dark-haired Sleeping Beauty, her mouth slightly open. Her freckles graced her cheeks like stardust.

Not quite sure what he was doing and not really caring, Adrien leaned over the bed and kissed Marinette's lips. They were soft and warm and she smelled like cookies and clean, fresh air.

Adrien sat up, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Goodnight, Princess." he whispered. Marinette sighed and buried a little deeper into the bed covers, smiling. Adrien transformed into Chat Noir again only to jump off Marinette's balcony, then walked home as Adrien.

That night, Adrien didn't dream of Ladybug.

That night, Marinette didn't dream of Adrien.


	10. Chapter 10

**Season 2, October 26, everyone! Only 10 days left! I know that its only out in French, but after waiting for (what has it been now, two years?) I can't believe that it's finally here! YAAAAAAY!**

 **Only a short chapter today because I haven't finished writing the next scene yet. Fingers crossed, I'll have it ready by the end of the week. :)**

When Marinette woke up the next morning, the sun was shining through the window and hitting her eyes like a laser-beam.

She moaned and rolled over, falling out of the bed and landing in a heap of pillow and bedclothes on the floor.

Tikki emitted a squeak of protest from where she was smothered under the quilt. Marinette tried to apologise for the rude awakening but all that came out of her sleep-addled mind was "Mmmph."

Marinette heard her phone buzzing incessantly. That must have been what woke her up. But it was a Sunday morning. Why on earth was someone calling her on a Sunday morning?

She dove into her quilt and eventually resurfaced with her phone. The screen showed a photo of Alya.

"What the hell, girl?" Marinette asked as soon as her friend picked up. "You should know better than anyone that I need my beauty sleep."

"Well, you can beauty sleep later, Aurora. Don't you remember?"

"Disney jokes? Really? And apparently I don't remember. Care to remind me?''

Marinette's mum knocked on her door, so Marinette quickly put her friend on hold. At the door, Sabine was holding a plate of breakfast. "Good morning, sweetie!"

She said, breezing into the room and placing the breakfast on Marinette's desk. "I brought you extra food," she said, "so that you'd have plenty of energy for when your friend arrives."

"I beg your pardon?" Marinette asked, grabbing a slice of apple from the plate.

"You know, how you said that you were going to cater for the wedding reception and Tom and I were going to go out for lunch. Unless you cancelled that? Oh I'm so sorry, Marinette! I didn't mean to- oh, blast it. I'm sorry sweetie."

Marinette had stopped, the slice of apple paused almost at her mouth. From her hand, she could hear Alya laughing her head off. "Adrien's coming to my house." She whispered.

"Marinette, darling. Are you okay? You look a little pale." That came from Tom, who had poked his head into the room. Sabine nodded. "I agree. Is you're concussion coming back, Marinette?"

"N-no, no. I-I-I'm fine."

"Alright. Well, if everything is good then I'll… just go. Right Tom?" Sabine asked, cautiously moving backwards.

"Yeah. Come downstairs when you've finished getting ready, sweetie." Tom said, closing the trapdoor behind Sabine.

"Alyaaaaaaaaaaaaa…" Marinette wailed into the phone.

Her friend only laughed harder.

"Come on, I need your help! What do I do?"

"You clean up the house and get ready to make some sweet, sweet dessert with your man."

"He's not my man!"

"Oh, but he will be. Don't doubt yourself, Marinette! Now you have to go and get ready so I'm going to hang up, but just know that I love you and that you're an awesome, talented person, so don't put yourself down!"

"Love you too, Alya. Bye!''

"Bye!"

The phone beeped, and Marinette put the phone down on her desk, slowly surveying her room.

She had a lot of work to do.

"Oh, no. I'm not missing out on a whole day's worth of you sighing and whining because things are awkward between the two of you idiots. Come on! Let's go!" Plagg said, whirling around Adrien's bedroom angrily.

"B-but are you sure?" Adrien asked. He paced the floor, as agitated as Plagg was, though more worried than grumpy.

"Yes! Let's get moving, you idiot. The sun is shining, and there's no-one else in the house. It's the perfect day to go see you lady-friend. Say it!"

"She's not my lady friend."

"Who is she then?"

"My- my Princess."

"Oh, lord. This day is going to be like torture by kittens. Deep breaths, Plagg. Deep breaths." He did so. "Now come on, let's go! Don't want to keep your _Princess_ waiting, now do we? Say it!"

"Plagg!"

The kwami grinned.

"Claws out!"

"… And that's it." Marinette said, surveying the last room in the house. She had swept, tidied, mopped, and shined everything in the house until it gleamed like a diamond.

From Marinette's laptop, Alya surveyed the room too. "It looks good." she said. "Are you sure that's everything?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"You've closed the shop for the day?"

"Yup."

"And waved your parents goodbye?"

"They've decided to wait until Adrien arrives before they go out."

"Have you set out all the ingredients, made sure everything is there?"

"All done."

"What about in your room? Have you gotten rid of your screensaver and all your photos?"

"No! I forgot to do that."

"Well, go do that now! Adrien will be here any second!"

"I know, I know!"

Just as Marinette let down the stairs to her room the doorbell rang. She heard her mother answer it.

"Adrien! How lovely to see you!"

Marinette gasped and looked at Alya. She silently answered with a shrug, and then disconnected the call.

 _You'll pay for that later,_ she texted her her friend. She heard the door open, the chimes hanging off it ring.

"It's a pleasure to see you too, Mrs Chang."

Marinette snuck through the room and poked her head into the bakery.

"Oh, you're so polite. Don't be! You can call me Sabine." she said. "Just put your satchel down over there. Make yourself at home."

Marinette could just see Adrien's head from in between the shelves. It caught the sunshine from the window and sparkled. "A-are you sure, Mrs Chang? I wouldn't want to intrude-"

"Oh, shush! Call me Sabine. And you can call my husband Tom. I'm sure he would want you to."

"Well, thank you Mrs- Sabine."

"And there's Marinette! Come say hello, sweetheart." Sabine beckoned to her daughter with a look on her face that said: _you come over here night now, missy._

 _Just smile. Try and prove to him that your not hopeless._ Marinette thought to herself as she moved out form behind the shelves. "H-hey, A-A-Adrien." she said, waving awkwardly.

He hit her with one of his full-beam smiles. "Hey Marinette." He said, the happiness in his voice melting her into the floor. She almost fell over. "A-are you feeling better?"

"Y-y-y-yes. Thank you."

"Good! Good!" Sabine clapped her hands together. "I'll just go find you father and then we'll be off." She kissed Marinette's cheek. "If anything goes wrong just call us, okay?"

"Of course, Maman."

Just then, Tom walked into the bakery, drying his hands on a towel. "Adrien! So nice to see you again." he laughed. "Do you have any other good jokes for me?"

"What!?" Marinette gasped. "When were you telling each other jokes?"

Adrien grinned bashfully.

"When Adrien came round to the bakery to bring you food the other week he and your father had a- a joke-off, was it?- while I was sorting out the treats." Sabine explained, patting Marinette's hair down from where it had frizzed.

Tom kissed Marinette's head then gave her a ring of keys. "Have fun, you two!" he yelled as he shut the door behind him.

Adrien and Marinette stared at each other. The clock that hung on a strange angle above the counter ticked loudly.

"So… cupcakes?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry, guys, bit of writer's block there. But we're on track again (probably, hopefully, maybe)! Here's the next chapter.**

Marinette nervously led Adrien through the house. Out of the corner of her eye, she checked every room. All of them looked up to standard.. not that Adrien cared, as he was scowling into his satchel and ignoring everything else.

"A-A-Adrien? I-i-is everything a-alright?"

He muttered something under his breath. It sounded like swearing.

"A-Adrien? Are y-you o-o-okay?"

He looked up at this, his face painted red. "Sorry, yeah. I just… don't worry. Everything is fine."

"O-oh. Okay." Marinette nodded furiously, sliding open the door to the kitchen. Everything was spotless (thank God!) and one of her parents had opened a window so that a nice breeze could travel through.

Adrien threw one last angry look to the inside of his bag before buckling it closed a little tighter than necessary and almost throwing it across the room into the corner of the kitchen. It hit the bench and caused the cookie jar to shake. Marinette watched nervously out of the corner of her eye, but both the cookie jar and the hidden Tikki inside it settled safely away from the floor. She looked over at Adrien, but neither made any comment.

Without sparing a glance for his mistreated bag, Adrien moved over to the kitchen sink to wash his hands and roll up the sleeves of his perfect ironed shirt. Perhaps because of the humidity of the room, his hair had begun to rebel against the hair gel that coated it and was slowly curling away from his face.

"W-well, I w-w-was thinking th-that we c-could make, I don't know, m-maybe s-s-s-some cupcakes, and then- Adrien? Are you even listening to me?"

"What? Oh, sorry Marinette. Again. I guess I'm just really out of it today."

Marinette looked over at him for one long moment before reaching up to her mother's old dessert recipe book on the top shelf and opening it at the first chapter. "W-w-well, f-for s-something easy f-first, p-p-perhaps… Adrien, you're not listening to me at all!"

He didn't even look up this time. Now he was on his phone, probably text-arguing with Natalie, Marinette thought. A kind of astonished anger came over her. She had invited him to her house, and cleaned every speck of the place from almost the moment she had woken up this morning, and he hadn't even looked, much less remarked on it- or even appreciated the hard work! All of it for nothing.

So Marinette grabbed a handful of self-raising flour from the huge tub next to her elbow and threw it at his face.

It felt like slow motion. Marinette watched the flour leave her hand and spread through the air like a cloud. It was a good shot- right on target, and a small part of her brain cheered that thought before being quieted by the rest of her brain, which was watching the flour in a kind of fascinated horror, as of it were a child running out into danger that was _just out of arm's reach._ The flour left her hand and coated Adrien in a fine white dust. It was all over his shoes, the designer jeans, his beautifully pressed shirt, his astonished face, in his hair. The whole room held its breath everything was still, as of posing to reflect in this moment, perhaps to take a photo. Just a boy and a girl, one with arm outstretched and hand covered in flour, one the receiver of an unexpected drift, and was looking down at himself as of to check what part of his ensemble could be salvaged. None of it, Marinette was sure.

Adrien moved first, he looked do an at himself, then up again at Marinette. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Please, please, don't talk! Oh my god Adrien I'm so sorry I can't believe I even _did_ that! Please, please forgive me I don't know what Im doing and I'm so, _so stupid_ and-"

Marinette spluttered. She looked at Adrien, who was grinning like the villain in a spy movie about to dominate the world. She looked down at herself. Flour. More flour. She looked back at Adrien. "You didn't." she said.

He laughed.

"You didn't." She started to smile.

"I did! I did!"

She grabbed another handful of flour behind her. In doing so, she knocked her carefully-measured bowl of sugar to the floor. The bowl stayed intact, but the sugar spread across the whole floor. White dust danced in the sunlight.

They looked at each other. One dark-haired girl in a battle-ready pose, her hand reaching for the sack of flour; one boy who once had blonde hair, but was now covered head-to-foot in white, trying not to fall to the floor in laughter and formulating a plan to get to the packet of cocoa powder next to him, or perhaps the egg carton just next to it? Mess all over the floor, spread up the walls and across the whole room. Neither of them moving, both watching the other and waiting for the perfect moment.

Marinette acted first. While Adrien was still trying to catch his breath and stop giggling uncontrollably, she grabbed there corner of the sack of flour and threw the entire thing at his head. Moved too fast, though, and ducked out of the way just in time… to avoid getting it on his user half. It landed on his back instead, the force splitting the seams of the sack and creating a spectacle much like a small explosion. But by the time the mushroom-cloud had disappeared, Adrien had ripped open the pack of cocoa powder and had flung it full-force at Marinette's chest. It covered her body like a firework of chocolate before ricocheting off and hitting the wall.

Marinette searched for something else. Adrien was far too close to the eggs, was probably heading for them already, so she opened the fridge and took out the tub of butter that she had methodically cut into perfect, tiny cubes in preparation to be used today. _"You are going down, Adrien Agreste!"_

 _"_ _Only if I take you down with me!"_

And with that, all hell broke loose.

Tikki carefully opened up the lid of the cookie jar. She peeked out to see what was happening. For the past ten minutes it seemed as of a war had been taking place int the kitchen, and she had been grateful that her hiding place had been undisturbed, except for when Marinette had pushed it to the back of the bench, before grabbing a banana, unpeeling it, and throwing it at Adrien.

But there had been a lull in noise for a minute or so, and Tikki deemed it safe enough to look outside.

Both teenagers were on the floor panting slightly. There was mess everywhere- Tikki was sure Sabine would have a heart attack when she got home- and an equal amount of smiles, even though bot of them were so messy it was hard to tell of they were actually human. Tikki smiled as well. It was so nice to see such a cute love story. Oh, she couldn't wait until they revealed themselves to each other and Plagg and Tikki could laugh at them for being so stupid!

Looking down at Plagg, she waved slightly, hoping he could see her. In response, a pair of whiskers appeared out of the bag and waved back before quickly retreating at the sound of Marinette's voice.

"Hey Adrien?"

"Yeah?"

"What on Earth are we doing?" Marinette asked, looking at the ceiling. One of the splats of berry juice there seemed to make a picture of a face. Those two smaller splodges of raspberry as eyes, the banana as a nose, and the big streak of egg could be the mouth…

"I have no clue. We're having fun." Adrien respond. His eyes were closed, because he was determined to remember every single piece of today. He was certain that he would remember it forever, no matter what happened. "I feel like I haven't had so much fun in ages."

"I agree." Marinette replied, then turned to look at Adrien- or, at least, the Adrien-shaped pile of flour and sugar next to her. "Thank you, Adrien."

The pile of flour propped himself up on his elbow and turned to her.

"For what?"

"For being my friend."

"I-I'm your friend? I thought you didn't like me at all. You always avoid me, and you don't like talking to me, and-"

"Don't be silly, Adrien. You're my friend."

"Oh. _Oh."_

Marinette turned to look at Adrien, to make sure he was focussed on her."And don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. Not your Dad, not anyone at school, not, I don't know, an akuma or something- not even me! You will always be my friend, Adrien. Always."

"Oh." Adrien said, again.

Suddenly, Marinette sat up with a devious grin. "Lets take a photo of the two of us and send it to Nino and Alya." She said. Adrien wasn't quite sure why she was trying her hardest not to laugh. "That way, they can be certain that we're friends."

"Yes. That's such a good idea, Marinette! Let's do that right now." Adrien stood up and opened his satchel to grab his phone, Marinette standing behind him and in peals of silent laughter to the point where she almost couldn't breathe.

She wriggled her way underneath Adrien arm as he lifted his phone and made her funniest face. O the screen on front of her, she could see the both of them. They looked so carefree, so happy. _If only that were true for the both of us._ She thought, before banishing the thought entirely. Now was not the time for thought like that.

"And there!" Adrien laughed, lowering his phone. On the screen were their two smiling faces, so coated with flour that they could have been ghosts. "Do you want me to send it to Alya and Nino?"

"Yes, please. Wait!"

Adrien paused, his finger over the send button.

"Let's have a bet. Who do you think will call us first? Alya, or Nino?" Marinette asked.

"Oh, Nino, definitely. He always responds to stuff like this immediately." Adrien replied, grinning.

"Well- I bet Alya! Loser has to make lunch." Marinette laughed.

"Done!" Adrien pressed send and placed his phone next to Marinette punk one on the bench. They both watched the photo load until the little _Delivered_ tag appeared.

Adrien turned on the timer on his watch. "Five seconds." he said. Marinette watched the phones eagerly. "Six seconds. Seven seconds. Eig-"

Both phones exploded, buzzing and ringing so loudly that Marinette could imagine their two friends screaming on the other end of the line.

"Which one called first?!" Marinette asked, reaching for her phone, where Alya face grinned on the screen.

"I- I don't know!" Adrien laughed, picking up his phone with Nino's name was shown. "But don't answer it!"

Marinette looked over at him questioningly.

"Let's make them squirm." And with that, Adrien pressed the _Decline Call_ button. Marinette copied him. As soon as Alya's contact disappeared, Nino's flashed up. At the same time, text messages appeared on the screen form Alya, filled with random letters in capitals punctuated by the words _ADRIEN_ and _WTF CALL ME NOW._ Her phone seemed to have a seizure. Both of them fell on the floor laughing, rolling around in the flour. Adrien rolled over to Marinette, who was staring at the particles of flour dancing in the sunshine, and wrapped his arms around her waist, squeezing so tight that she couldn't breathe. "Thank you, Marinette." he whispered into her shoulder. Thank you… for everything."

Marinette was so shocked that she couldn't say anything. She just smiled her widest smile ever and stroked her fingers through Adrien's hair.

On the table above them, both phones rang out. For a moment there was complete silence, then a single ping from Marinette's phone- from her mother. It read: _Your friends have called both myself and your father! Please just answer them._

As if on cue, Alya rang again. This time, Marinette answered it.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N I'm so, so sorry that I didn't publish before! Hopefully this will make up for it.**

"WHAT THE HELL GIRL WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER ME BEFORE-"

Marinette winced and held the phone away from here ear. She looked over at Adrien, who gave her a sympathetic grimace before doubling over in laughter. She poked her tongue out at him.

"GIVE ME AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS PHOTO, MARINETTE! I NEED AN EXPLANATION NOW, OR ELSE!"

"Alya! Alya, calm down!"

"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, GIRL WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BETWEEN YOU AND AD-"

Adrien phone rang as well, and he answered it. Nino's voice echoed through the room, no less loud or excites than Alya's. This was probably the least chill Marinette had ever heard the boy in all of their years of class together. Nino had spent the few weeks of cramming before an exam with more serenity than what he was showing now.

"ADRIEN HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING BETWEEN YOU AND MARINETTE! WHAT THE HELL, DUDE I THOUGH WE WERE FRIENDS, WHY ARE YOU KEEPING ME IN THE DARK ABOUT THIS-"

"Oh, hey Nino. Is that you?" Alya asked, her voice changing from enraged force to candy-sweet. "I assume that Adrien sent you the photo as well."

"You can bet it. And now he WON'T TELL ME WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON. I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND, ADRIEN!"

"Jeez, Nino, its it like that. I just-"

"No. No. I don't want to listen to your excuses."

"But Nino…"

"You're dead to me now. Do you know how long I have waited for this moment, when you would start to get along with Marinette?"

"Not as long as I have! I was so happy that Marinette doesn't actually hate me-"

"Wait, what? Since when did I hate you?" Marinette asked, covering her speaker so that Alya's screeching was muted somewhat. "I never hated you- at least, not since the whole gum incident was cleared up."

"Well, I know that now, but before you would never talk to me and when ever I walked into the room your face would go all red and then you would move t the other side of the room, as far away from me as possible. So, I guess I just thought…"

"Oh, Adrien." Marinette whispered. She reached out and touched his cheek. Each fingertip was a conductor for a tiny bolt of electricity that ran all the way from Adrien's open, hopeful eyes straight to Marinette's heart.

But… stopped before the secret, deep part that housed all of her feelings, that once had inspired a poem on a heart-shaped love letter and enough courage to give a boy a good-luck bracelet. And when looked inside herself, she realised- Adrien didn't live there anymore. Someone else had taken up house in her heart. Someone with cat eyes and terrible puns and so many smiles that they seemed to infect her.

When she closed her eyes, those hopeful, quiet green eyes changed into laughing cat eyes, and Marinette imagined if Adrien was wearing those silly cat ears on top of his head, or perhaps if his golden hair was… just a tiny bit messier.

"Marinette is my friend, Nino. I'm so happy to have her as…my friend."

Even as Adrien said it out loud, she heard the echo of it in her heart. The truth of the words.

 _Just a friend. Just a friend._

Just a friend.

Adrien had known Marinette for a long time now, as his Lucky Charm, his classmate, Chat Noir's partner in crime, his fellow conspirator in shipping Alya and Nino together, and now as his crush. And in all that time, he had never seen the quiet, shy girl who stumbled over words and her own feet in… quite this sort of mood.

"What on Earth are you doing, Adrien! Mix faster, you idiot."

"Yes, ma'am." Adrien laughed, but obediently forced the wooden spoon to beat faster, harder through the bowl.

Marinette poked her tongue out at him. She was like a Valkyrie, fierce and so full of life that Adrien found it simply impossible to look away. She was covered in flour and sugar from head to foot, and had a smear of chocolate running up the side of her face and egg white in the tips of her hair. She was carefully packing their raspberry trifles in their little cases and then into a cardboard box in the fridge. It was the last box of what seemed to have been hundreds of teeny tiny desserts they had made over the afternoon, from cakes and doughnuts to strange jelly balls made out of fruit to soufflés. Every surface on the kitchen was covered in some sort of ingredient, and piles of bowls and used cutlery dripped cake batter onto the floor. It was a complete mess that they had long since given up trying to control and Adrien just loved it.

In fact, the only part of the whole procedure that was possibly clean was where Marinette was, packing the perfect little dishes ready to be sent away.

"Hey, Mari. What are you making now?" Adrien called as he walked from the shop back to the kitchen. They and just finished cleaning up and packing (except for one patch of flour and egg white on the roof that the mop couldn't reach- Tom would have to get that later) and the tiny desserts sat in piles of boxes in the huge fridge, ready to be taken to the reception tomorrow. Adrien felt quite proud and himself and Marinette. He hoped that the wedding guests would like them.

"Oh! Nothing. Nothing at all."

"I'm pretty sure it isn't, because it stinks like Camembert."

"How do you know what Camembert smells like? I didn't peg you as the kind of guy who would eat cheese like this."

"Goodness, no, _I_ don't. But one of my, ah, friends from out of school eats it all the time and it's a smell you just don't forget, you know? Come on, tell me! You're not making them for the wedding, so who are they for?" Adrien leaned his hands on the table and moved forward over the bench to see into Marinette's bowl. His feet just came off the floor.

She smacked him away with a laugh. "You have to promise not to tell _anyone._ Especially Alya."

"Ooh! This sounds like a good secret. I promise I won't tell a soul." Adrien grinned, tearing off a piece of croissant and popping it into his mouth.

"Well…" Marinette fidgeted from one foot to the other.

"Well…" Adrien echoed, smiling.

The words rushed out of Marinette's mouth like a tidal wave. "It's for Chat Noir."

Adrien thumped back onto his feet.

Marinette didn't notice. She was on a roll. "You see, we're kind of friends, so sometimes he stays at my house when it's raining. But my parents don't know that he's there to I can never give him any proper food and only the old stuff that we don't the bakery that day-"

 _Is that the old stale stuff that I have?_ Adrien wondered. _It tastes like pure gold to me. I really should visit the bakery more often._

"So I decided that I'd make him some better pastries and things and that last longer so that when he comes around next time he has something to eat."

"So… Camembert, huh? I never thought of Chat Noir as a Camembert kind of a guy."

"Well, not strictly him, but for his kwami, Plagg. He's little bug-cat-mouse thing that gives Chat Noir all his powers. He only eats Camembert. So I'll make this for him, and I'll make some cookies for Tik- ah, for me, and I'll make some raspberry tarts for Chat, and-"

"Blueberry."

"What?"

"I- ah, no. Nothing? Nothing!" Adrien waved his hands frantically. "I just had a thought that, maybe, perhaps Chat Noir prefers blueberry."

"Blueberry, huh? Why do you think that?"

 _Because blue reminds me of you hair, and your eyes. And berries remind me of your cute button nose and your freckles and your gorgeous, round face smiling at me. Because they remind me of sweet, messy, funny, incredible you, and you are my home. My family._

"No real reason. I just have this hunch."

"Oh." Marinette placed the bowl on the table and opened the fridge door. "Well, I cam certainly do blueberries. Blueberries work. Yeah, why not?" She nodded to herself.

Adrien was so ecstatic that he almost choked on a piece of croissant.

"I've almost finished them. Why don't you wait in my room. Upstairs?"

"Yeah, sure." Adrien nodded and headed to her bedroom. "Hey, Mari, do you mind if I pick a movie for us to watch?" He called as he walked up the stairs.

"That sounds awesome. I have plenty of DVD's up there and a few things on my computer as well. The computer shouldn't be locked, so just open it up and you can pick anything. I like them all!"

"Thanks, Marinette." She heard the trapdoor close with a thud.

Marinette turned back to the kitchen bench with a smile on her face and cut out the last of Tikki's cookies, placing them on the baking tray and turning on the oven. She grabbed a rag and cleaned the last of the mess of the bench and then followed Adrien up the stairs.

He was standing in front of her computer, looking at the screen. It was only then that Marinette remembered…

"Marinette?''

"Y-y-ye-yes? Adrien?"

"What is this?" Adrien gestured to the screen as he said this, unable to take his eyes away. As if to distract himself, his brain started supplying the origin of every single photo he could see, all of him smiling happily (mostly fake). Milan, London, Moscow, Paris, the one show in New York that he had gone to with his father two years ago… photos of him from the paparazzi just sitting in the park with an ice-cream. There were even some photos of him that Marinette could only have taken herself, of him talking at school with Nino. And dotted in between the photos were huge pink hearts with puns - _his puns-_ written in them. What seemed to be hundreds of them. She must have read them over his shoulder in class.

"A-A-Adrien. I-I'm s-s-s-so, so, s-sorry."

"Why?" he asked dispassionately. His brain was trying to pick all the pieces together, but it seemed to be frozen in shock.

"B-because I _lied_ to you! And I stalked you and then I made this stupid screensaver with all the photos just because I wanted to see your smile every morning when I woke up and you probably think I'm some creepy weirdo who stalks people but I promise its not true and that Im not trying to be weird or hurt you or anything-"

"Marinette."

"Y-yes?"

Adrien felt himself growing cold, just like he did before he talked with his father. It was something that just happened to him when he was scared of being pushed away. It had started when his mother died, and had now become a kind of speciality of Adrien's. When he was inside his castle of ice, no-one could touch him. No-one at all. Except for, perhaps, Ladybug. Because he had given her the key in.

But the girl in front of him wasn't Ladybug. It didn't even seem to be Marinette- at least, not the awe-inspiring one from the past few hours. This Marinette was small and scared and seemed to want to scrawl into herself and disappear.

"Do you like me?" He asked. Once again, he wondered if this was what it was like to be his father. Cold and seperate, surrounded by people who feared him. The Adrien that hadn't turned into an ice statue hated the feeling, hated, hated, hated it, but he couldn't break through the cold.

Marinette waved her arms frantically in front of her face as if she was trying to swat a fly whilst having a an episode of epilepsy. "Well, no, of course not! I mean- not that I don't _like_ you, just that I don't _like like_ you, but I like you as a friend- just as a friend. Even though Alya will tell you completely different, and Nino, and everyone else in class because I'm not very un-obvious. But I think of you like- like Nino!But that isn't true because of all the weird stalking stuff I do, but that's just because I think you're cute, and sweet, and kind, and perfect, and… well, I guess I _like like_ you, I just don't _like you_ like you, do you know what I mean? And-"

"Marinette?"

"Y-yes?"

Adrien turned to look at her. Her face had gone completely white and her hands were shaking. Somewhere, buried under the shock that had closed off Adrien's emotions like a wall of ice, a flicker of guilt appeared. He didn't want to hurt her, but he _needed to know the answer._ "Just tell me the truth. One word, that's all it is. Yes or no."

Marinette took in a gasping breath. Simultaneously, you could see the fight come back into her and go back out again. She had made her decision. She was going to tell him this time. And this time, it would be the complete truth.

"Marinette. Are you in love with me?"


	13. Chapter 13

And Marinette replied:

"No. I love someone else."


	14. Chapter 14

**I have started on writing the end of the fanfic, so it's coming closer and closer. Only a few more chapters to go! I hope you like this one. It was written in a bit of a rush, 'cause I felt guilty leaving you hanging like that. I hope you enjoy!**

 _Well,_ Adrien thought, _I was right. Today certainly was memorable._

 _"_ But- but do you like me at all, Marinette?"

Marinette was still standing there, still looking small and unsure; she was completely silent. He had seen the girl in front of him be feisty and strong, but never in front of him.

Was that his fault? Was he just trying so hard to make friends that he scared people like Marinette? Did she think he was being too desperate in his search for a true family?

 _You'll never be enough, Adrien. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you'll never be enough._

He looked down at the floor, trying to squash all the black memories inside of him. All the grey, lifeless memories of his family now, after his mother had left. In reality, Adrien supposed, his one chance at a true family had disappeared the same night that his mother had.

"Adrien, I-"

"No. Y-y-you know what, I d-don't want to know. I- can't know. And- and I won't intrude upon you any more than necessary. Please excuse me." The last part was only a whisper as Adrien pushed past Marinette and hurried down the stairs as fast as he could.

He grabbed his satchel from the kitchen floor, but his eyes were blurry from tears. When he pulled, the bag opened and spilled all over the floor, all of his books and paper and the little things he simply couldn't let go of. Plagg zoomed out of wherever he had been hiding and started whispering worriedly. _What going on, kid? Are you all right? Did something happen?_ Adrien ignored him, and shoved him into the bag, next to Camambert cheese. He reached down and scooped as much as he could back into the bag, not caring if he missed something, and pushed himself out of the back door.

Coming down the street towards him, holding hands and laughing as if they had stolen all the happiness from Adrien world and were now flaunting it in front of him, Sabine and Tom were walking up the street, towards the bakery. Adrien pushed his head down, hoping that they wouldn't notice him- they weren't his family anyway, why would they even care?- but Tom saw and detached himself from Sabine, following Adrien with a worried look on his face. What on earth was going on with that boy? He wondered. Half the time he seemed nearly delirious with happiness; other times- like now- it was as if Adrien's one dream, his one love had been destroyed in front of his eyes. Goodness, the boy was more dramatic that Sabine and Marinette put together!

"Adrien, slow down, I'm too old to keep running after you!" Tom called, trying to inject as much laughter into his voice as possible. He saw Adrien hesitate then bolt away even faster, his head down and his shoulders hunched as if walking through cold wind. The shining sun only seemed to mock them.

With one huge effort, Tom caught up to Adrien, grabbing his shoulder so that he couldn't cross the street. "Come sit down." he said, leading to a park bench nearby.

"Just tell me what happened."

Adrien stayed stubbornly silent.

"Adrien, please. I can't help you if you won't talk to me."

Still nothing. No answer.

"Look, I can't help you if you wont talk to me, son, and-"

"No!"

Tom looked at Adrien in shock. "What's the matter, son?" He asked, as calmly and quietly as he could.

"I-I-I'm n-not your s-s-s-son." Adrien replied. A tear traced down his cheek. Then another. And another.

Tom reached an arm around Adrien shoulders. He could feel how tense the boy was; as if they boy in front of him was so full that he was just about to explode. "Adrien, it doesn't matter that you're not really my child. Because I've heard from Marinette and from Sabine that your real father is a piece of sh- that is to say, he doesn't do a very good job raising you. And because Marinette is your friend and she loves you, I see no reason why I can't be your father instead of Gabriel Agreste."

"Marinette doesn't love me." Adrien murmured to his shoes.

"What? Of course she does. She has for ages."

"No. I asked her. Just then. Just today. I thought- I thought, if Marinette loved me, and I loved her, then maybe I could really be a part of your family. I could- I could have a real family. But she doesn't. And I can't. So it meant nothing. It means nothing. It doesn't matter. I don't matter."

"Of course you matter! You're a brilliant boy, and you're so polite and nice I'm sure anyone you meet would be happy to be your friend."

"But no one needs me. I mean, not really. Not as much as I need them. Marinette might love me, but she has Alya, and Nino, and you and Sabine. If I leave, then it doesn't matter to her. But I love Marinette so much- I love her more than anything."

 _I love her more than Ladybug. But she doesn't love me back. Who would, really? You're just dreaming Adrien. All you ever do is just dream, and fantasise, and make things up. Because you know, deep down, that none it it is real. Probably ever was real. Isn't that right?_

Tom looked down at Adrien; his face was filled with worry. Adrien felt as if he were a snake, or a rabid dog- As if Tom wanted to love him, but Adrien was just… too _wrong_ to be loved. Too different. Too strange. Suddenly, Adrien felt angry. How dare this man take pity on him when he had a family, and real love, and all the things that Adrien had had stolen from him? How dare he try and comfort him? He had no idea what got was like to have no family at all.

Inside the satchel, something shined. Plagg was pushing up something from the bottom of the bag, frantically signing to Adrien. What did he want? He had never liked Adrien. He never knew what it was like to have the most important thing in your life disappear. All Plagg needed to be okay was cheese.

Careful to remain out of sight, Plagg pushed the shining thing out of the satchel and into Adrien's lap. It was the bracelet Marinette had given to him before he and Ladybug had battled The Gamer. Adrien held it up, rolling each individual bead between his fingers. Looking back, perhaps that was the day he had first decided to make the Dupain-Chengs his real family. When Tom and Sabine had made croissants, and spied on him and Marinette until Adrien thought he might explode with all the laughter inside him, when he and Marinette had fought (well, not really fought. He was no match for Marinette) in the video gamed Adrien had felt strangely annoyed when the akuma had arrived when it was just he and Marinette in the park next door.

Adrien clenched his fist until he felt the beads bite into his skin. He hoped that they would tear his skin, that they would make him bleed just as Marinette had done when she tore his heart out.

He heard the tell-tale flap of an akuma's wings coming towards him. Good. He would spit families apart. He would tear parent from children, partner from partner, sibling from sibling. Then every one would feel how he felt. No one would pity Adrien again!

Adrien opened his hand and the little purple butterfly landed there. He watched as it folded itself into Marinette's bracelet, He felt the evil absorb into his skin, the adrenaline that came from-

 _"_ _No!"_

Tom snatched the bracelet from Adrien's hand, and seemed to rip all the emotions out of him as well, leaving only guilt and horror as Tom whispered "Yes, Hawkmoth." And purple bubbles coated his body, growing larger and larger until a huge, monstrous man stood in front of him with an evil smile like Cheshire Cat and Tom's eyes, usually smiling, glinting with menace and evil.


	15. Chapter 15

**Omg I'm so, sorry! When I first started writing this I knew I'd end up posting late sometimes but this has gotten insane. I should have the net chapter up soon after this one, but the way this is going (and with Christmas just around the corner- yay!) I really should be promising anything. Anyway- enjoy! You've definitely waited long enough.**

Chat Noir ran through the alley, feet and thoughts moving faster than he had previously thought possible. How was this possible? It shouldn't be possible. It might be a dream, but the pain in his hip from where Tom- no, no _the akuma-_ threw Adrien across the road and into a tree as _the akuma_ lumbered towards the Dupain-Cheng bakery proved that this was very real. The path of destruction the akuma made was easy to follow, and Chat could guess where he was going anyway so he took a shortcut through the park.

Somewhere deep down, it hurt him that Tom had ignored Adrien, just tossed him out of the he wasn't as important in the Dupain-Cheng household as he had believed- as he had hoped. His ring flashed. Chat forced himself to not notice.

Chat Noir burst through the bakery door, ready to shout for an evacuation, but all the customers had been ushered out the back door and it was only Sabine left, hurriedly running around, closing up shop, putting little fragile memorabilia into a safe behind the counter.

"You have to leave- this will all be restored after Ladybug purifies the akuma, you don't worry about it." Sabine looked up at him, and there was something in her eyes that he didn't like, because it spoke of a woman prepared to run headfirst into danger. "I'll be fine, Chat Noir." she said sweetly. "Don't worry about me at all. I want you to go and find my daughter, Marinette, and take her someplace safe. Go, go!" She pushed him out the back door.

"Sab- Madame, it's not safe! Come with me!" "No. I want you to find Marinette and leave, run away as fast as you can. This is my decision, Chat Noir, and mine alone!" And with that, sSabine opened the door of the bakery and strode purposefully towards the akuma.

"Tom!" she called out."Tom, darling, I know it's you. I don't understand what's happened, but I need you to come back to me."

The akuma's eyes widened. 'I-I'm not Tom- I'm the _Matchbreaker!_ " He shouted, but it was weak and unsure. He began to relax and his suit rippled before Chat Noir could work out what was going on Hawkmoth's purple haze grew over his face, and Matchbreaker grew angrier and angrier. He seemed to be fighting a brutal war inside himself. Anger, pain and sorrow twisted his face and made it even more gruesome.

Matchbreaker roared at Sabine, and reached for her, but she ran up to him and held fast to his leg. "You let my husband go, Hawkmoth, you vile man!" The akuma stopped, and a little but of Tom seemed to come back, because he slowly reacher down to Sabine and carefully curve one huge hand around her back.

Then he roared as if in great pain and threw Sabine into the air. On his wrist, a band Chat Noir hadn't noticed before beeped then flashed.

"You will never have love again!" Matchbreaker roared. When Sabine landed, completely unscathed, she held herself straighter, sharper. It was clear that all of her gentle, motherly love had been ripped out of her, even before she turned towards Chat and he saw her black, soulless eyes.

"Follow Chat Noir! Steal his ring, then kill him!" Matchbreaker roared.

Sabine ran at Chat and high-kicked him, hitting his shoulder with a blow that made Chat stagger. Before he could blink, she was at him again, a fireball of beautiful, gentle woman broken and mutated into something that was everything that Sabine shouldn't be. Shame burning him from the inside out but knowing that he had no other choice, Chat took out his baton and struck her just behind the ear, knocking her out instantly. He caught her and gently lowered to the ground. "I'll keep Marinette safe." he whispered.

Matchbreaker was turned away, fighting people in the park. For possibly the first time ever Chat turned his back on the akuma entirely and ran to find Marinette. The bakery was completely empty, as was the alley behind. Remembering how fast Marinette could move, Chat extended his baton to the sky.

There! Dark hair and pink pants running down the next street over.

Chat landed on the roof above her _(don't show off, don't show off),_ expertly flipped by kicking off the opposite wall in a move he had been practicing for months and landed right in front of Marinette, who was looking up at him through her lashes as if she had been expecting him- or hoping he would come.

"Hey, Chat." She whispered, stepping so close that Chat couldn't think. "have you come to save me?" Chat nodded too fast and wondered where he had misplaced his usual untouchable demeanour.

He scooped her up before he could second-guess himself and simultaneously extended his baton to expertly push them up along the rooftops.

"Chat?" Marinette had wrapped her arms around his neck as they ran parallel to the Seine.

"Yeah, Mari?"

'Are you showing off? For me?"

"Maybe- maybe. But only a little bit."

"Oh."

Chat could feel the blush as it raced up his neck. He hoped Marinette couldn't see it.

'I need to take you somewhere safe. Do you know anywhere?"

'Why are you doing this, Chat? Just drop me off somewhere nearby. I'm far enough away to be safe."

"No, you're not. Your father's just been turned into a huge, violent monster who is hell-bent on ripping every family apart in Paris. He's already taken Sabine and I'm sure he'll go after you next."

"I'm not important. You should leave and go fight the akuma. If I wasn't here, that's what you'd be doing already."

Chat Noir slowed for a moment, those words flooring him. "Look at me, Marinette." he said, a little harsher than necessary. Marinette's eyes were big and bright in the afternoon sun. Her hair was coming loose and wind-blown curls stuck to her cheek.

"Marinette… you are more important to me than any akuma. You are more important to me than the whole of Paris- the whole of France. You are more important to me than the whole world. That's why I have to keep you safe."

He started running again. No doubt he akuma was following them now- either Marinette or himself. Maybe Ladybug was fighting him off, slowing him down. If she was then he should be protecting her, but… Marinette wrapped her arms around him tighter and Chat know there wasn't anywhere else he was meant to be.

Plagg piped up, the sound echoing through Chat's head. _Down there, under the bridge is a great hiding spot. She'll be safe there, and its easy to protect._ Chat immediately moved down towards where Plagg had said. He might think that Plagg was annoying, cheesy, vague and far too smug, but when it came to akumas and keeping himself and his friends out of danger he trusted the kwami completely.

He stopped under the bridge and instructed Marinette to still quiet and still. She looked around nervously, but smiled at him.

He pushed himself up onto the top of the bridge to look out for any signs of the akuma. There were no shouts to be heard, and no signs of explosions. Strange. This area had obviously already been evacuated by the police (and everyone was so used to akumas know that they no longer got scared).

Everything was incredibly quiet, like the moment in a movie before the villain jumps out and scares you. Only the wind blew, hard and unceasing, making ripples on the water. Chat turned in a full circle, but saw nothing. Surely an akuma that big couldn't possibly be stealthy. But there was nothing at all.

Maybe it had lost them? Gone in the wrong direction to terrorise some random civilians? Maybe Ladybug had seen which way he was going and driven Matchbreaker in the other direction? If that was the case, he should go help her now. Marinette would surely be safe here.

He poked his head down under he bridge. Marinette, who had been looking at something in her purse, started and blushed.

"I'm just going to scout around for a bit." Chat said. "work out where the akuma is."

Marinette nodded, grateful. Now she could talk to Tikki in private. As soon as Chat's head disappeared again, Tikki zoomed out into open view, her cookie still mostly uneaten.

"How slow are you today?" Marinette asked. "I need to go help Chat."

"I'm eating as fast as I can." Tikki replied. "And don't look at me like that! You enjoyed being picked up and carried by Chat Noir- I know you did."

Marinette blushed. "That's none of your business."

 _"_ _Hello._ As your kwami _everything_ is my business."

"Well- stop talking and eat!"

Tikki laughed and took a huge chunk out of her cookie. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

"Tikki? How is this possible? How is any of this possible?"

Tikki swallowed and replied; "Where shall I begin? None of this should be possible."

"How did Papa take Adrien's akuma?"

"Well, that has happened before, although very rarely. When a person has such a close connection with an akumatised person that their feelings can depend upon the others then an akuma butterfly- which are not all that clever, I can tell you- can get confused and change person.. For example, because your father treats and thinks of Adrien as almost his own son- don't look at me like that, he does and everyone knows it (except Adrien of course because that boy is as dense as a brick)- when Adrien became so sad and angry Tom felt similar negative feelings- probably sadness, worry, maybe a bit of anger- and when he took the bracelet you gave to Adrien all his negative feelings were piled onto you father as well. So the butterfly has gotten confused and akumatised the wrong person." Nodding to herself, Tikki took another bite out of her cookie.

"Wouldn't Hawkmoth just unakumatise Papa? He can do that, can't he? I've heard him threaten it before." Marinette asked, frowning.

"Apparently he thinks he can get your Miraculouses with Tom. His plan has changed, but he's continuing with it anyway. And with these types of akuma being so strange and volatile perhaps he think the unpredictability will give him an edge he hasn't had before."

"I see. Or, at least, I think so." Marinette moved to the edge of the bridge, where the shadow ended, and moved her arm out into the sunshine. Dust danced over the water. Marinette shivered. "It's getting pretty cold outside. What do you think Chat is doing?"

"He's still looking for the akuma. My guess is that he's either found it and is fighting or has lost it completely."

"Surely not. An akuma that large couldn't possibly be stealthy."

"Just be careful, Marinette. You can never be certain."

"I know, I know." Marinette rolled her eyes, but she inched back into the shadows where she couldn't be seen. She held her breath, but could only hear the water and the sound of the city carrying on as normal on the other side of the river. Akuma attacks didn't worry anyone anymore. It was almost becoming a tourist attraction- or , at least, seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir in action was.

She heard running footsteps on the bridge above. Tikki hid just as Chat came back.

"I simply can't find him anywhere." He said, sitting down next to her. On the screen of his baton she could see that he had called Ladybug over and over again. As the last time rang out, he whispered a curse and closed it, tucking it back behind him. "I can't find Ladybug anywhere either. I almost want to try her normal number, but-"

"No!" Marinette squeaked. Chat looked at her strangely, so she pretended to cough. "Sorry. I've had a ticklish throat like, all day. I've been coughing all the time." That only made him frown even more, in total confusion.

'Doesn't matter." she said hurriedly. "Just, ah, don't call Ladybug's normal phone. I'm sure she's already heard the commotion and is on her way."

"But, that's the thing. There's no commotion at all. I need Ladybug here, so that we can figure out what's going on. That's one of the best things about her, you know- the way she thinks of ideas and comes up a plan, just like that and when I'm beginning think this might be impossible. She always knows what to do. She's so amazing."

He rested his head in his hands and gazed out onto the water, his ears moving this way and that to catch any evidence that an akuma was nearby. Marinette loved his ears.

"Don't sell yourself short like that, Chat." She murmured. "Ladybug might be good at finding a basic plan, but if she didn't have you to catch her when the plan didn't work she would have died that very first akuma attack. The way you fight together perfectly and protect each other without even trying- that's all your doing. And when she feels like the whole world is going to fall into chaos you're always the one that makes her laugh and relax. You- you always talk so highly about her, but… you're her pedestal. Without her, I- _she_ would fall every time."

Chat looked down at her. Was he crying? He reached out an arm and tucked Marinette under his shoulder, an arm wrapped around her, his hand tracing little swirls on her skin.

"You're my pedestal too, Marinette. With you, my whole world would be off balance. But you make everything- right." Then they both sat in silence, listening to the sound of the water and the wind in the trees.

The moment was too perfect, too fragile, to be real.

So they waited for everything to fall to pieces.

It didn't take long.


	16. Chapter 16

It started with a tiny tapping sound, so quiet that even Chat's inhuman hearing almost missed it. Steady and unnerving, it seemed to come from everywhere at once, echoing across the water. Chat thought of the sound that a spider might make when it was moving closer to you, crawling up your back and onto your neck. He shivered.

Marinette looked over at him in concern, so he pressed a finger to his lips and whispered "I'm just going to check out what's going on. Stay here, okay?"

Marinette nodded. She was grateful, in some way. As soon as Chat Noir disappeared, she opened her purse, looking down at those big, blue eyes that echoed her own. "What do I do, Tikki?" She asked. "Nothing makes sense anymore. None of the should be possible. I feel like I'm dreaming, except that this is far, far too real."

Usually this was the time for Tikki's signature _'you'll work it out, all in good time'_ remarks, but instead she replied; "Just stay here. I think… I think we can just leave Chat Noir in charge of this. Stay untransformed, and stay with Chat. We can solve everything as Ladybug later."

"But… Tikki! How can I do anything? As just- just Marinette, I cant save Paris. I'm hopeless. I can't do anything. I need to transform, but the what do I do?"

"I don't know what to do, Marinette, honestly I don't. But I do know that this is the time for Marinette. You are just as capable at hero work in the suit and out of it, or I know Master Fu wouldn't have chosen you. This is _your father,_ don't forget that. Right now, we don't need Ladybug. We need Marinette.'

'

Marinette opened her mouth. Closed it again. She looked down at her shoes.

Chat poked his head out from above the bridge, making Marinette start. If he had seen Tikki (please, please no, not now-) he didn't make any sign, just extended his baton to the ground and cam back to sit down next to her. "I didn't see anything up there." He said. "But I have that weird feeling, you know? When something about to go terribly, horribly wrong."

"I know what you mean." Marinette responded, thinking; _and I also know that your gut feeling has never been wrong._

"Well, we'll just stay on guard. If I tell you to run, you run, okay? Don't try and look after me. I'll be fine. Do you promise?"

Marinette's heart cracked through at Chat's earnest, pleading look, a tiny fissure that bled her dry, her whispered "I promise." cutting her to the quick. "I promise." She said again, stronger this time.

"Do you hear it?" Chat asked after a moment.

"Hear what?"

"The tapping sound. I can't tell where its coming from."

"I can't hear anyth- wait. Yes. Where is it coming from? It seems to echo from everywhere." Marinette looked up the the worn- down concrete around them, but if it knew any answers. it wouldn't say.

"I know." Chat responded. His voice took on that serious quality to it. Marinette had always thought it was adorable, when he was being so protective of her as Ladybug. Like she was no joking matter to him.

"Is it getting louder?"

"It is." Chat Noir gripped his baton tighter.

It sounded like rats. Like thousands of tiny feet, all running at the same time, from every edge of Paris straight for them.

A face appeared above them, big, black, empty eyes and an equally empty smile. It was gone before Chat could reach it, and then the tapping was louder, closer. Right above them.

Another face appeared. Sabine. She laughed at them. Then, all of a sudden, the feet stopped, and the earthquakes started.

Ch looked down at her. "Run, Mari. _Run."_ So she did. And then she saw what had been making the tapping noise.

This was certainly a new strategy for the akumas. It seemed as if most of the population of Pairs was here- thousands upon thousands of black eyes and dark smiles. Men, women, tourists, grandparents and children lined both sides of the river. A round woman bounced a baby on her knee and stared at Marinette as if she were an animal trapped in a cage at the zoo- some freakish thing designed to be laughed at. Chat stood right behind her. "I'm sorry, Mari, but I can't get you out. I have no idea where they all came from- there was no one anywhere around when I looked before."

"I have a feeling that none of them are people anymore, Chat. They don't act like that. They probably can do things now that we can't." Marinette turned to Chat, saw the bravery in his eyes, and the hopeless fear behind that.

"What are they, then?"

"Rats. I'm calling them Rats." Marinette said firmly. If she though of these people has who they had been not too long ago she might break down completely. Better to not think about it until after the fight was over.

The earthquake came closer, and suddenly Matchbreaker was standing there, just there. Sabine sat on his shoulder like a content cat being entertained.

"Marinette!" Matchbreaker boomed, Tom's distorted voice filling up the scene until Marinette felt as if she couldn't breathe.

"Come to me, Marinette. Come to me and your mother. I'll make you just like us, and we'll stay together forever, without anyone loving anyone. The world will be a better place, Marinette- and it will love us for it All you have to do is take Chat Noir and Ladybug's miraculous, and give them to me. Or together we can give them to Hawkmoth!"

"No, Papa! I know you don't want this. I know you love Maman, and Grandma, and me. This isn't you! You need to snap out of it!"

Hawkmoth must have improved his hold on Matchbreaker, for there was no hesitation when he jumped down and made grab for the both of them. Marinette was pulled out of the way by an arm wrapped around her stomach, Matchmaker's fingers missing her my inches, and Chat used his baton to push them upriver, running across the rooftops with her in his arms. Marinette looked down and saw the crowds of Rats following them, their eyes like whirlpools trying to suck them in. They were catching up, and some of them were climbing the fire escapes to reach the roofs.

Marinette ducked her head and silently urged Chat to run faster, _faster, faster._

Chat looked down at Marinette. All he could see was her dark hair, but he could feel her shivering, either form the cold wind or from fear. He clutched her tighter and kept running, afraid to look back. He knew the Rats were coming closer; he could hear their feet like the roar of a tsunami. He ran faster and faster, knowing that if he made the smallest mistake both of them would drown.

Marinette lifted her head. "Put me down, Chat. We have to fight them. We can't keep running forever."

"I don't want you to get hurt!"

"I won't. You'll protect me, and the first chance I get I'll find a place to hide."

"I can't do that. I need to find Ladybug. I can't fight this many people on my own."

"Just for a moment, I promise, and then Ladybug will be here and together you can fix anything. I have a plan. I know how to find Ladybug. You need her."

"And you." Chat added without realising. It just came out his mouth on its own. It made both of them pause. "D-don't short yourself, Mari. You're so important to me- I couldn't do anything without you."

She hugged him a little tighter. "Do you trust me, Chat Noir?"

Chat looked down at Marinette, at the determination in her eyes, and at the next flat roof slowed and set her down. She stared at the throng of Rats approaching unwaveringly. "Just for a moment. Then Ladybug will be here." She said, half to herself.

"Marinette. You have to run. I can't hold them off for long. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"I'm certain." She turned around. "Chat! Look out!"

He spun around just in time, throwing his baton out to block the first punch. Before he could do anything, he was being kicked at form the opposite side. Blindly, he twisted and glanced his elbow into the Rat's face, sending him flying. He frantically tried to hold them back, using all of his skill as superhero and a good deal of desperate lashing out besides, anything to buy Marinette time to finish her plan. How could he trust this girl? He had no idea what she was doing, she could have run off to safety and left him here for all he knew.

 _God, I hope she's run off to safety. Even of she leaves me here to be captured by Rats- as long as she's safe, I'm happy._

The Rats had gotten the better of him now, using their numbers to sink him to the ground. _Might as well give up now,_ Chat thought. His ring started flashing. _No one's coming anyway. Not for me._

Then Ladybug was right there, and she pun her yo-yo so fast that the Rats took a step back in surprise. She yanked Chat out of the melée by his tail and then they were running, running, running like always, Ladybug planning and Chat watching the run rise and set in her eyes. He would protect her forever.

"Where's Marinette? Is she okay? Is she safe? Ladybug, Ladybug, you have to tell me!"

Ladybug faltered for a moment, stumbling slightly before she kept running. "You- you worry about her that much?"

"Of course! She's my best friend, and I lo- well, that doesn't matter right now. Do you know where she is?"

Ladybug nodded. "I saw her just before- just before I found you. She was fine. She wanted to say-"

 _"_ _Found you, Ladybug!"_ Matchbreaker roared behind them.

 **A/N: This is as far as I can go. I'm finding the next bit really hard to write; even harder than I thought to would be. Please review what you think will happen next!**


	17. Chapter 17

_"_ _Found you, Ladybug!" Matchbreaker roared behind them._

Ladybug twisted around, already spinning her yo-yo, Chat right next to her. She gasped at the sight before her. Now, broad daylight, was the first time she had seen Papa properly. She wanted to cry, but her body wouldn't move. She wanted to scream, and-

"Mama." She whispered, seeing the silhouette on Papa's shoulder.

Chat looked over at her. Right. This was normally the time where she came up with some brilliant plant to stop the akuma and save the city. She'd done this one hundred times before. She had an idea, didn't she?

She looked over at Chat Noir hopelessly, and opened her mouth to apologise.

Chat nudged her with his elbow. "How about we get rid of the Rats, first?" He said.

She nodded vigorously. "I can do that." That was easy. "Go round to the back of the crowd," she said to Chat, "and lead them after me. Make sure you get all of them." Chat nodded and extended his baton, flipping over towards the horde of civilians.

" _Hey! Matchmaker! Come get my Miraculous!"_ Ladybug yelled tauntingly. Matchbreaker took two big steps towards her. "It's Match _breaker,_ and I will take your Miraculous, Ladybug, and give it to Hawkmoth!"

 _Wow, being akumatised apparently makes you lose all your brain cells- surely you can come up with something better to say than that, Papa?_ Ladybug thought, giggling.

According to Matchbreaker, giggling was one step too far. He roared and sent three bright shots at her, one missing her by inches.

"Follow her!" Matchbreaker told the Rats, just as Ladybug had known he would. She grinned and wrapped her yo-yo around a light post, swinging her way around the corner and towards the Bourgeois Hotel. She could just see Chat Noir at the back of the horde of Rats, unnoticed by Papa. He caught her eye and winked.

Wa she blushing? Oh, God. She was blushing at Chat Noir. Not now! She was supposed to be serious now! That was saving-Paris-from-her-akumatised-father time, not blush-at-your-best-friend-who-somehow-became-your-crush time.

A Rat had somehow managed to boost itself ahead of her, and was waiting with hands outstretched, fingers curled like claws. Ladybug flicked her yo-yo at the Rat and hit them square in the forehead, knocking them down like flicking off a switch.

She swung around the next block and landed right in front of the hotel, thankful that it seemed everyone had long since been evacuated from this area by police. She forced the doors open and waited.

The Rats were not far behind her. They were jumping on creaming, pushing each other out of the way in an effort to get closer to Ladybug. Each of them had a greedy, malicious look on their face and the grins of a child planning to ruin your whole evening.

Ladybug could see Chat at the back of the group, his expression becoming more and more confused the closer the Rats got to her. And from the other street she could hear Matchbreaker following, roaring and sending beams of light that lit up the roofs.

 _One thing at a time,_ she thought, and prepared to jump.

Some of the Rats looked rabid, with drool hanging out of their mouths and hands twisted into eagle talons. The front of the crowd was almost here… just a little bit more…

There! Just as the first Rat reached her, Ladybug flicked her yo-yo over the door, jumped over the heads of the stunned Rats and pushed open the forms. The force of the crowd pulled all of them inside until they were snowballing, then piled in a heap in the foyer. Ladybug quickly slammed the double doors closed and locked them tight, knowing that the bullet proof glass the mayor had recently installed to protect his daughter from her seemingly-endless akuma kidnappings would hold the Rats tight- for a moment. Enough time to concentrate on Papa.

"Lucky Charm!" she called, loving the rush of power that coursed through her body and created… a piece of aluminium? Really?

Ladybug looked up, searching all around her. Nothing. Nothing at all. She looked over at Chat, who almost always was a part of the Lucky Charm's plan, but he was just staring at her from the other side of the street. She looked back at the sheet of aluminium in her hand.

Chat's hand landed on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I- I've got nothing." She whispered.

Chat looked down at his feet, then at Matchbreaker, who was turning towards their street and about to see them. "Let's run, then. Maybe you'll find something else at the Eiffel Tower, maybe?"

"Too far away. The police might not have evacuated it yet. Let's go to the soccer stadium." Ladybug said, but when Chat nodded and extended his baton, she didn't follow him, just looked at the Rats beating helplessly inside the Bourgeois Hotel, Sabine baring her feel at them and scraping her nails against the glass. As Chat watched, he saw her earrings flash, and a red light come off them. They flashed again, and the red light curled itself around Ladybug's ear, teasing her. A black dot disappeared.

Chat grabbed her hand. "Hold on to me," he said. "and I'll take us both there."

Ladybug looked over at him, startled, a blush painting the skin under her mask, but she gently placed her hand in his and held on as he boosted them into the sky towards the sport stadium.

They landed neatly and rolled onto the ground. A Rat, a brand- new one, was sitting not the other side of the stadium. It saw the and ran off. Matchbreaker would no doubt be here soon.

Ladybug looked around again. The Lucky Charm was still giving her absolutely nothing, but she had an idea of her own. "What if we use the foil to reflect his light beams back at him, that should distract him enough to take the bracelet."

Chat nodded and took the foil from her, stretching out to make it completely flat, then splitting his baton and tying it to either end like a banner. He nodded at her grimly.

Matchbreaker roared. Right on time!


	18. Chapter 18

**Phew! Finally broke through the writer's block. It was a bit bumpy, but we got there! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll have the next one up very soon! Can't have you waiting on this cliff hanger for too long ;) (Why do I keep giving you cliff hangers on my chapters? It's like I can't write it any other way.** ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.

Matchbreaker bounded over the wall, his light bracelet flashing. Chat was ready, the aluminium foil sitting half-hidden behind him. A swarm of Rats followed him, spilling over the roof and surrounding them like a fight circle. They cut off absolutely all the exits. Ladybug watched all this with half an eye, making sure to concentrate on Papa. Was he even still in there, anymore? Or had whatever Hawkmoth done to him just beaten him into a tiny ball, until he just disappeared completely, never to return.

There was still nothing from the Lucky Charm, but Chat Noir was watching her, as serious as she'd ever seen him.

Rats lined along the roof, pointing and laughing and shouting like the audience of a boxing tournament.

"Matchbreaker! Over here!" Ladybug yelled, swinging her yo-yo to latch itself around Matchbreaker's upper arm. At the same moment, Chat flashed the foil directly into his eyes. Matchbreaker flailed around, and would have sent Ladybug flying if it weren't for her yo-yo. As it was, she was shaken around like crazy, in a way that she was sure would be comical if she was watching- preferably from somewhere far away from here!

Matchbreaker staggered backwards, one step, two, and right into the trap that Ladybug had made out of the football goals. Both legs and one arm trapped, Matchbreaker could do nothing but roar and flash his bracelet over to the other side of the field. Ladybug somehow managed to twist herself to landed with a thunk, on top of his forearm. A beam of light escaped from his bracelet and narrowly missed the top of her head.

Blinking away stars, she looked for Chat, needing his Cataclysm to destroy the bracelet in front of her, _and then they could all just forget this ever happened- perhaps Tikki would let her hide in her bedroom for the next decade?-_ But Chat was fighting off some more Rats, and these ones were not playing nice, nails scraping at his cat suit. And just to top it all off, her earrings beeped a warning in her ear for three minutes left.

 _Hopeless, hopeless, hopeless!_

Ladybug carefully unwound her yo-yo, making sure to avoid any stray beams of light. She waved to grab Chat's attention.

Chat was almost about to try and use his Cataclysm to get rid of these _stupid_ Rats when he saw Ladybug perched precariously on Matchbreaker's forearm. She flicked her yo-yo over to the bleachers just behind her, and it only took Chat Noir a moment to work out what she meant. _She really is amazing,_ Chat thought as he boosted himself over to the other side of the field. Immediately, the Rats followed, tumbling over each other. Chat balanced himself on the fence, just next to where Matchbreaker was still trying and failing to extricate himself. Just to show off (in case Ladybug was watching him) Chat added in a little wink and a smirk as the Rats leapt for him, but it felt weird on his face when he wasn't as desperate for her to notice him as usual.

He decided he could get used to this feeling, Chat decided as he nimbly evaded the Rats and left them in a pile on the other side of the fence. As long as he could flirt with Marinette, watch her laugh and blush at one of Adrien's unexpectedly serious comments.

 _Not the time to think about that, Chat- concentrate on saving Paris first!_

Ladybug wasn't watching him. She was too busy trying not to fall off, all four limbs wrapped tight. Her earrings beeped again. Two minutes.

"Any ideas for the Lucky Charm?" Chat asked, looking down at the piece of foil still wrapped around his baton. Seriously, who came up with these stupid ideas? Surely having rope or a giant pair of handcuffs would be far more useful and far less confusing.

"Still thinking!" Ladybug called back. Matchbreaker roared again, now sounding pained and sad. The dreaded purple haze appeared over his face again, and he twisted as if in pain, and struggled harder. His feet moved, and one broker free. He would get out in a second, and knew it. Hawkmoth's evil grin bled through their connection onto Matchbreaker's face.

 _"_ _Cataclysm!"_ Chat roared. They had a minute, at the most, before Ladybug retransformed and Matchbreaker broke free. He had to reach the bracelet _now._

Police sirens approached from all around. They had worked out where they were and surrounded the stadium. Could they help at all? And the news helicopter appeared over the top. So everyone could see them now. That never helped Ladybug- she always felt so nervous when she was being watched, got herself worked up over too may things. Already Chat could see her eyes widening, thoughts thundering through them. His ring flashed, the kind of flash that he didn't want to see. A patch of blue jeans appeared and disappeared just as quickly.

"Ladybug!" Chat yelled, and ran. Matchbreaker almost had his other arm free, and his bracelet was pointing towards Chat. He dodged a breathlessly close beam and leapt right for the bracelet…

Just as Matchbreaker finally broke free. Chat missed and hit one of the soccer goals; it rusted and disappeared before his eyes. Ladybug flew across the field and landed in the middle of the grass; she didn't move.

Chat didn't know what to do but run, and run, dodging and pushing himself. What did he do? Everything was gone. Was he meant to do something with this aluminium foil? Wave the aluminium foil in the air as a surrender?

Thank goodness, Ladybug wasn't out cold. But she was stumbling slightly, and she wasn't watching as Matchbreaker and Chat came straight towards her. Chat grabbed Ladybug and smashed her into the ground again, a beam of light flying over their heads. His ring flashed, and again.

Matchbreaker breaker lumbered closer to them. "Give me your Miraculous, Ladybug and Chat Noir, and then I will destroy love wth them! Isn't that what you want? No more people being confused; no more people pining away, wasting their life; no more people being betrayed by the ones they trust the most! Give the Miraculous to me, now, and we can make the world better!"

"That's not true!" Ladybug responded. "Sure, love isn't all amazing, but that doesn't mean that we should make it go away! Love can change people's lives for the better- love can save someone's life!"

"Love can destroy someone's life- when it is taken away from them forever!"

Matchbreaker's expression abruptly changed from the maniacal grin of an akuma to the small, lost look of a young boy. Of Adrien. "No one loves me! No one ever loves me! And if they do, they'll just leave, or die, or disappear forever! So I'll destroy all love!"

Chat grimaced. It was his fault. He had lost all of his family, and just to top it all off he had destroyed this family as well. His ring flashed at him, and Plagg made some sort of murmur that Chat stopped listening to before it had even begun.

There was another beep from each of them. One more left for Ladybug. What could they do, except for keeping him taking like this until Hawkmoth grew bored and finished them off forever.

Lady bug moved forward, towards Matchbreaker. There was a kind of desperate light in her eyes that Chat had never seen before. She dodged a beam from his bracelet and came to stand at Matchbreaker's foot.

"Papa! _I_ love you!" Ladybug stopped twirling her yo-yo, not understanding the gravity of what she had just said, or perhaps not even caring. She took a step forward.

"Destroy all love! No one shall ever love again!" Before Chat could breathe, Matchmaker had swiped his hand across, sending debris flying, and caught Ladybug in the side of the head. She fell down, hard, and Matchmaker picked her up again. As he did so, Chat heard the final, unmistakeable beep and a flash of red sparks- and there was Marinette.

There was Marinette.

Matchmaker roared something else, but Chat couldn't hear it above the pounding in his blood. _Marinette. Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug._ Blue hair in pigtails, red ribbons flying in the breeze. A mask, disappearing before his eyes, and Marinette's smile lighting up the whole room, flour smeared across her cheek. Marinette laughing with Alya. Ladybug laughing with Chat Noir. Every puzzle piece falling perfectly into place, the way they were meant to be. The way they always had been, Chat supposed, if he had only turned around and looked, _really looked,_ at the two most important girls in his life.

His weakness shouldn't be family. It should be selfishness, or arrogance, or naïveté.

No. His weakness was his Lucky Charm, the only real family he had now.

Marinette. Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug.

 _Marinette._

 _Ladybug._

And then she and the Matchmaker were gone, and Adrien was left in a pile of wreckage that was nothing compared to the chaos in his mind.


	19. Chapter 19

**Jesus, that was weird. When I posted last night (well, it was last night for me) the whole chapter seemed completely normal. I've never had that happen before. I'll just try reposting the same thing and see if it fixes itself. So, if you're reading this, I guess it worked out! In that case, enjoy!**

Marinette tried to scream, but nothing came out. Matchbreaker's hand was crushing her lungs and he held her upside down as they flew so fast across Paris that everything was a blur. She didn't even have time to wonder where they were going before Matchbreaker stopped again, only to jump high, fast, spinning and spinning. They must be well out of the city centre by now. She could smell dirty water and mud. The world twisted into a grey kaleidoscope, the concrete blending in with the threatening clouds almost on top of them. There was a huge storehouse- and then it was gone. And the edge of a ship's mast before she was flying through the air again, probably would have been chucked into the unforgiving river if not for Matchbreaker's fist squeezing all the life out of her body. She felt sick. She couldn't breathe.

Closing her eyes felt slightly better. That moment before she had completely detransformed, when she had seen the Eiffel Tower and the aluminium foil dangling, forgotten, from Chat Noir's hand. And had that perfect clarity- _of course they should have gone to the Tower, use the reflection from the foil on the metal bars, of course!-_ before she was smashed from the side and gone.

Her head was pounding, as if she were still in the hospital. She could feel something cold and hard underneath her fingertips and head. Her neck was twisted under neath her shoulders, as if she'd just been thrown in here. The space was too small for her to stretch, and when she did something soft but reasonably heavy landed on her hip. She pushed it off, and it made a thump on the ground, lifting up a pile of dust that made her sneeze. When she opened her eyes, it was pitch black.

"Tikki?" She whispered. She felt for her earrings, but they were gone- she wasn't surprised. Tikki must have disappeared with them. Did Hawkmoth have her Miraculouses already? Had Matchbreaker captured Chat Noir too?

"Chat?" She called, louder. It echoed up above her head. "Chat?" Nothing.

Ever-so slowly, white spots appearing and disappearing in her vision, she sat up. She must be in some sort of cage or box, just wide enough that her shoulders fit. All around her were horizontal bars and next to her was… a broom? Yes, it must be. And continuing around the space with her fingertips she found something small and glass that scraped along her palm and a loop of thin space itself was large enough for her to stand in, using the horizontal beams for balance. Even more dust up here, making her cough and her head start beating out a rhythm through her skull and into her ears. She very quickly decided that sitting was a better idea.

The wall behind her was smooth. A door, perhaps? There was a doorknob, cold and rusted stuck, and no doubt locked anyway, with no keyhole. Locked from the outside, then. No way out of there.

It was strange, sitting here completely alone. For almost two years now she had always had Tikki in the room with her- even if they weren't talking, just doing homework or listening to music or relaxing on the bed. Knowing that there was no one with her made Marinette feel even more alone than she ever had before she hd become Ladybug. The difference between not having someone and having someone ripped away from you was a sharp punch to Marinette's gut. _It's hopeless. It's utterly hopeless._

Dimly, she heard a smash outside her box, and the clang of metal hitting metal. Matchbreaker's laugh rang through over it all. He was in the building with her, then, and it was a big building from the way it echoed again and again above her. One of the warehouses down by the dock, no doubt. Or perhaps one of those abandoned storage facilities on the edge of the city.

Another crash, a little closer, and this time she heard the smooth sound of those light beams slicing though the air. Far off in the distance, people shouting.

Marinette lay her head back down on ht floor. It was really just hopeless. Just hopeless. There was nothing to do at all. What could she do? _Hopeless. Hopeless._

Her head was pounding again, like a base drum. And then the rest was silence. Marinette curled up tighter, into the smallest ball she could. How amazing she must look, she thought, half of Paris's greatest superhero duo, untransformed and stuck in a box with her Miraculous stolen by an akuma created from her own father, who was most likely lost forever now, all because of her _stupid plans_ and her _stupid ideas_ and her _stupid, hopeless Lucky Charm_.

 _Hopeless._

The dust on the floor was sticking wet to her face, perfectly outlining the path of her tears.

Chat watched as Matchbreaker disappeared. In a moment, he was gone, no way you could have ever tracked him down, no use for it anyway. How could Chat fight him anyway, without his Ladybug, without his Marinette? He was nothing. Nothing without them to watch him, to make him laugh, to look after him.

His ring flashed.

Why shouldn't he just let it take over his whole body, just let the pure destructive power destroy him? It's not like he could help his Lucky Charm anyway. No, she was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing around him except for ripped lawn and piles of wrecked, rusty metal and splintered wood tumbling over from their makeshift trap. Police sirens were wailing, but they were some miles off. They couldn't help Ladybug anyway. He watched the flashes travel up his feet, up his legs, on his shoulder. It seemed to burn his suit, green flame licking at leather until it peeled apart. Maybe when it had finished burning Chat Noir, it would burn Adrien as well. And what did it matter? Marinette was gone.

His tail was gone, and his left arm. He watched it climb up over his shoulder, and in the reflection of a twisted piece of metal next to him saw it reach his neck, touch the side of his mask, spread across his eyes…

"A- _Adrien?"_

Alya was standing there, her phone dangling forgotten out of one hand. Idly, Adrien wondered if that was streaming live to the Ladyblog. Probably.

"Claws in, Plagg." Adrien whispered. Plagg shot out of the ring faster than he had ever seen him before, and immediately flew up to Adrien's cheek. "By everything holy in this world, Adrien, don't ever do that to me again! Do you have any idea what you almost-" he ranted, flying around Adrien head, his antennae sticking straight out. Adrien wanted to laugh, but Ladybug was gone. At least now Alya wouldn't be hurt- or Nino, who came running out across the field from the other direction. They seemed equally as worried about him as Plagg was. Were they meant to be? His head was spinning. Oh, wouldn't that be the perfect ending to this day, if he fainted in the middle of a battlefield surrounded only by his friends whom he had been lying to for more than two years now.

For some strange reason, his friends didn't seem to notice that. No, they were too busy looking into his eyes, tracing hands across his body to look for cuts, for bruises. Why did they care so much? They shouldn't care about him. Maybe they should just look at him from the corner of the street and then avert their eyes. Maybe they should just treat him like an ant, and squash him if he got too close.

 _"_ _Adrien. Can you hear me!?_ Nino, we're going to have to get him to a hospital, look at him-"

"I'll call an ambulance. Did you check if he's breathing normally?''

"He seems to be, he's just not responding to anything I do. Adrien? _Adrien?_ If you can hear me, Nino's just about to call you an ambulance, we're going to take you to a hospital. I can't remember anything else that we were taught in First Aid class. What do we do after this?" Alya looked behind her, but Nino just shrugged.

"Don't take me to the hospital. You need to go and find Marinette. Alya, see if you can follow where Matchbreaker went online. Maybe you and Nino-"

"Don't be an idiot, Adrien. I mean, I'll let you slide with most of your stupid stuff, but that's going too far. Are you dizzy? Are you seeing, I don't know, stars or little birds or something?"

"I'm Chat Noir." Adrien didn't understand. Why weren't they angry at him?

"I am well aware that you are Chat Noir, Adrien, I just watched you transform and _boy do I have some questions-_ that can all wait for another time." She poked her tongue out at Nino, who just hit her with his knee again. "But right now I think you have some kind of head injury. I mean, you were literally just thrown like twenty metres, into a wall."

"You have to go after Matchbreaker!" Adrien struggled to his feet. "You… you tow can go and get Marinette. Ladybug. You can save her!"

"Yeah, sure. I mean, we're happy to help you. But first we have to check that you're all right." Nino wrapped his arm around Adrien's shoulder, helping him stand up straight.

"I don't understand you. _I don't understand!"_ Adrien pushed himself away from Nino and watched them both warily. "I lied to you.''

"I know, and I'm not happy about it. But I'll let Nino have that conversation with you, because I must have that conversation with Marinette. But I understand why you did it and it doesn't change that you're still our friend. But more importantly, we need to you turn back into Chat Noir so that we can go and save Ladybug."

"Marinette."

"I know that, too. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I mean, I followed the both of you for basically _two years and you were sitting in front of me in class? How the hell did I not notice that? And even time there was an akuma attack and both of you would ask to go to the toilet at the exact same time and no-one has synced bladders and I didn't even notice when you-_ ow, Nino. You've gotta think of some other way of telling me to shut up, because if you keep doing that I'm going to get a bruise."

"Like how?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe something like 'hey, Alya, how about we stop talking there.' See? No hitting required."

"Hey, Alya, how about you stop talking just here?"

"Now you've got the hang of it."

They were so _normal._ Didn't they get it? They said they did, but surely this wouldn't be their reaction if they really understood. But how to make them?

"For the record, I guessed that you were Chat Noir for a while now."

 _"_ _What now?"_ Alya turned to look at Nino, but he ignored her, focusing entirely on Adrien.

"How did you guess?" Adrien asked.

"When Alya turned into Lady WiFi, actually. When I told you about how she thought Chloé was Ladybug, and you looked so shocked, and so… hopeful. More than any random fan could ever be- more than you could possibly be, even with your strange obsession with those cartoons."

"They're anime. There's a big difference."

"So you've told me. Anyway, from back then I guessed that you were hiding something. I figured that if you could tell us, then you would have. I suppose I just assumed you'd tell us eventually. Maybe not like this, though." Nino laughed, pink splashing across his cheeks.

Adrien walked over to his friend and gave him the deepest, strongest hug he could possibly give. "Thanks, man."

Nino smiled. "Don't worry about it."

Alya looked like she couldn't decide whether to scream for joy or for anger, so she just stood there, trembling slightly. "All of us are going to have a nice, long conversation when this is over, you hear me?" She said.

Adrien nodded, and almost smiled again. "But first let's go and save Marinette."

Alya and Nino nodded too, smiling.

 **I'm sorry, but I don't actually know where the docks are in Paris (a bit hard to find out when you live halfway across the world from France and Google Maps is being a bitch) so I've kinda just approximated where I think a good docking port would be… and made one out of thin air. If anyone can tell me where they real Parisian docks are (or if there are any at all) please let me know! And if not, then where there would be some BIG warehouses that would suit my story. Meanwhile, I think I'll just continue with my setting here.**

 **Also what do you think about Adrien's whole break-down scene?I wasn't sure if it was okay or if it was a bit overkill- tell me what you think! Thanks for understanding, and thank you so much for all your reviews, likes and follows! They really inspire me 3**

 **GeekChic**


	20. Chapter 20

**We're getting towards the end soon! Just a few more chapters to go! Thank you so much to everyone that has been reading, commenting and following. It truly makes us writers feel so special. Hope you enjoy!**

Marinette opened her eyes again. There was some kind of noise, some kind of disturbance that had set her sense on alert.

Someone knocked on the door. Three short taps, a pause, then one more.

Curious and cautious, Marinette tapped the same rhythm back. There was silence.

"Who's there?" Marinette called out. More silence. Then, the doorknob turned. Inch, by inch, by inch, rust squealing. She peeked out of the tiny gap.

Matchbreaker's eyes were watching her.

Instinctively, we went to close the door again, to push herself away from him as fast as she could. But Matchbreaker was so, so still; not even blinking. Just watching her. She could see vague shadows for a skylight high above her, though the huge body in front of her was blocking out most of the light.

Matchbreaker still hadn't moved.

"… Papa?"

A purple haze flickered over Matchbreaker- no, _Papa's_ vision, because she was sure that was the person looking at her now, and he was _still in there, he's not gone it's not hopeless_ _-_ and disappeared again.

"Papa?'' She said again, louder this time, the sound hurting her ears after so long in complete silence. The eyes flickered, and blinked. She was sure, so certain, if she just found the perfect thing to say what was the perfect thing to say, ( _think, Marinette, think!)_ that her father would come back.

"Papa-"

A huge wailing noise broke the moment, like metal screaming. The police had discovered where she was and no doubt had the place surrounded, with every police man and woman available stationed on the block. Any moment now would begin the pep talk, and the "Stand down, akuma, and come quietly, we promise we won't harm you!" speech. Matchbreaker stood up and growled, and as he did Marinette saw that flash of red- Tikki red- from the corner of his bracelet. She was still here!

Matchbreaker slammed the door shut, leaving her back in the pitch black, but Marinette wasn't worried. Chat would know where she was now. He would come in and save the day. He always down-talked himself in front of the cameras (how could someone be simultaneously so charming and so awkward in front of reporters?) but he was so good at coming up with plans, with staying calm and rational when Marinette felt as if she were going to explode.

 _It's not hopeless. It's not! I believe in you, Chat._

 _You're my hope, Chat._

Chat Noir pushed against the doors of the warehouse desperately, tears screaming down is cheeks. He looked up at the doors of the abandoned warehouse, heavy and lined with steel, the lock binding the monstrous chunks of wood together was on the inside. It was impossible to get in through these except for if he used Cataclysm, and Plagg had already said that he was far, far too weak to do anything close to that right now. Even without using that much energy Chat's suit was flickering slightly, and looked a little paler than it usually did. If any kind of fight broke out, he would be no better off than any other civilian. Better to try and sneak Marinette out of here, regroup and destroy the akuma later.

It was a miracle that they had worked out where Matchbreaker was hiding in the first place. It had been one little comment on the Ladyblog that Alya had seen, saying that the akuma had been seen heading south, towards the docks. And when Alya had posted that on her main feed, a few people had added where they had seen the akuma from, until they could trace the akuma's steps to… this warehouse. They had given the address to the police as well, who had surrounded the warehouse completely, hundreds of worried faces watching the building and the three teenagers standing in front of it. It was a bit of a let down, honestly, that they got all the way to here and now they couldn't get inside.

Behind him, a policeman's radio crackled, and all those surround gin held their breath, entirely expecting Matchbreaker to burst our of the roof and turn everyone into Rats in an instant. Somehow, the fact that there was no response made it seem worse. Everyone waiting, and waiting. Only the wind wasn't still, twisting around them all and teasing their ears, making noise that sounded like crying- or like a girls trapped all alone in a warehouse with a monster that Adrien had created.

The wind…

"Follow me." Chat said to Alya and Nino, and began circling around the house, ears perked. If there was even a tiny gap in the wall, or a crack big enough to fit a hand through… it was an idea.

The wind pushed into the walls, bouncing off and laughing darkly. Chat could feel it even though his suit. Behind him, Alya shivered and pressed herself against Nino's side, who looked down at her in worry. "What are we doing, Adrien?"

"Sssh!" Adr- Chat Noir looked behind him, eyes wide, then at the police men they were walking past. They were having a silent conversation, bodies turned away from them. They won't have heard. They can't have heard. He relaxed again.

"Dude! You can't say my name out like that! You guys are the only ones who know!"

Nino laughed, his eyes tired and sad. "Sorry, bro. I forgot."

Adrien winced. He needed to tell more people. What was the problem with telling everyone? Just a few people. People to trust. Maybe…

The wind ahead of the slipped into the warehouse, just ahead of them. You could feel it even more than you could hear it. Adrien moved his hands along the wall, feeling-just there! A tiny gap, but if he could just pull it towards him…

The metal wall ripped like a tin can, the noise turning head all around them, and a gaping hole big enough to fit a person in was suddenly right there in front of them. Chat immediately stepped though, and then helped Alya through as she stepped gingerly around the jagged edges.

Inside the warehouse, it was completely silent. And dark. There was not a single speck of light, and not even Chat's spectacular night-vision could discern anything.

He took step inside, taking out his baton and extending it, ready for any surprise attack and to defend his friends behind him.

Was that a sound? No, it wasn't, just his mind trying to scare him.

 _Keep moving inside._ Plagg's voice echoed inside his head. _I can't sense anyone close._

Chat nodded, forgetting that Plagg couldn't see him, and moved slowly closer to the inky dark.

The boxes of products lined the walls, seemed, to extend forever in an endless series of shelves and cardboard boxes. There was a faint smell of fish and the sound of the harbour behind them , but inside the warehouse the air was still are was no noise at all. It felt as if the three of them were stuck in a vacuum and sealed off from the rest of the world. Chat skirted around a forklift and listened hard. Was that creak from metal moving in the wind, or something large and menacing moving closer to them? And that faint sound of sobbing. Was it Ladybug- Marinette- or was it just in Chat's imagination?

Alya and Nino were slowly walking towards him, stumbling slightly in what must be completely black darkness for them. For Chat Noir, his night vision had already started to kick in, and he could see the edges of shapes as he walked through. He moved over the one of the shelves of packed boxes. Surely there was something in here that could help them?

He opened a box and sifted through the bubble wrap. Just some kind of cloth. Closing the box, he moved along the row. Glass bottles in that one, some small wooden things in the next. Sneakers in here.

Chat moved along again. Just before he used a claw to rip open the next box, he felt something watching them, even though Alya and Nino were facing the wrong way and couldn't see him at all.

Could it be… the akuma? But there was no sound, none at all. In fact, even the wind seemed to have disappeared, although the inside of the warehouse was still freezing cold.

Feeling increasingly nervous, Chat opened the next box. Tiny little torches spilled out of the hole, the kind that you buy for a dollar in a souvenir shop that run out in an hour. These ones were shaped like little Eiffel Towers. The light that they emitted was pathetic, but they would do the job.

Grabbing two huge handfuls, Chat hurried back to Nino and Alya. "Here." He said. Turn all of them on and place them on everything you pass. That way, if you get lost you can retrace you steps and I can find you."

Alya frowned. "But surely the akuma will see us? It could be risky."

"The akuma is already aware that we are here. They probably knew the minute we arrived, and they definitely heard the sound of me destroying the door." Chat replied firmly, flicking the switch for another of the little torches to turn on. "I'd prefer you both to be able to see anything than to stumble around on the darkness and be found by the akuma completely unaware."

Both of them nodded and took a handful of the torches. It was comical seeing their determined expressions lit up by the fairy-light of the tiny Eiffel Towers. If Chat wasn't feeling sick to his stomach at the thought of his Lucky Charm being held prisoner in this place he could have laughed. "You take the west side," he said, pointing, "and I'll take the east. Move along the walls and listen for any strange sounds especially. We're probably looking for a door of some kind that reaches into either the basement or the floor above. But keep your eyes peeled, because the akuma may have disguised it. If you don't find anything, we'll meet in the middle and come up with a new plan. And if you see the akuma, scream and I'll come running."

Both of them nodded furiously and turned to the wall, casting their multicoloured torches out in front of them.

Chat turned away from them and waited for his eyes to once again adjust to the dark. Every time a new shadow appeared he jumped, imagining a huge, grinning mouth and those strange swirly eyes popping out of the shadows with a great, booming laugh that ripped Adrien in half every time he heard it. But every shadow he saw was just that, a shadow. A cackling, sharp-toothed, malignant shadow.

There were no doors, no secreted entrances to a basement, no stairs to a floor above. Chat slowly walked through the rows of soulless metal shelves that seemed to sway back and forth hypnotically in the strange hue of his night felt as if he were walking inside a forest made entirely of iron, determined to trap him forever in the unfeeling, uncaring blackness…

His ring beeped and flashed in warning. Plagg's gasp filled his body and brought Adrien solidly back into the present. _Careful, kid! If you break down now, there no way that we can save Marinette! You gotta keep it together._

"Roger that." Chat grinned falsely and forced himself to think of something else. He counted every creak that the metal made as the drought buffeted through the warehouse. It seemed to make an eerie sort of music, the high pitched and endless note waving through the space and breaking what would otherwise have been dead silence.

No, not quite…

Chat heard, dimly, sobbing. So quiet that for a moment he wasn't even sure that it existed. But no, no. It was definitely there. A girl. Sobbing.

Chat picked up his pace, half-jogging towards the noise. Everything was okay, it was good again. He had found her. She was alive, she was safe. His ears picked up everything that could possibly be heard, and soon they told him the the sound was coming from just the next row over.

"Marinette! Marinette!" he called happily, rounding the corner.

He saw a chair, with no one sitting in it. He saw huge piles of boxes with loops of rope spilling out of them. He saw a radio, where the sound of a girl sobbing was being repeated, probably from the audio of a movie. He felt a sharp stab in his hip, and saw those huge, swirling eyes and huge, grinning teeth. He heard the huge, booming laugh. It seemed to vibrate into his ribcage and suck out the last shred of he hope that he had.

Then he saw nothing.

Nino looked over at Alya as she walked though the boxes, a small frown on her face wrinkling her cute little nose. She had put on a brave face for the past few hours, but Nino knew that inwardly she was breaking into tinier pieces each minute that passed without finding Marinette. He reached for her hand and smiled the best smile that he could muster when she turned to look at him.

Nino wanted to say that everything would be okay: that they would find their friends, perhaps snogging in a corner somewhere, and Alya could take photos and then they could go back to school and everything would be back to normal again.

Except he know that could never happen. Every time that Nino looked over at Adrien- Chat Noir, Adrien, Chat Noir, _Adrien, Chat Noir-_ he felt emotions ripping him in half. Excitement that his best friend was a secret superhero; anger that his best friend had been keeping a secret from him for almost two years now, as if Nino couldn't be trusted; worry for ma who was trapped in hear somewhere, fighting against the magic that usually kept her from harm as she _fought akumas- tiny, clumsy Marinette fighting akumas!-_ but now was trying to kill her; anger at Marinette as well, perhaps for not telling him, but for lying to him outright and doing everything she could to conceal their identities- even to Adrien.

You could tell when Adrien was thinking of his girl, and over the year Nino had gotten especially good at that. Always the same wistful, joyful dream across his face, only to be dashed with the red of embarrassment when Adrien realised that Nino was watching him. Red like Ladybug's costume. Red like blood.

Ni shook his head, trying to calm down, and thought of something else to think about. He had always teased Adrien for his celebrity crush on Ladybug, and now it turned out that it was the kind of true love that Nino could only hope was the same between Alya and himself. It was the kind of love that would have Adrien throwing himself off cliffs and catching bullets for his Lucky Charm, the kind that could run into kidnappings and fights and lying and concealing for _two years_ and still come out the other side unharmed and no less beautiful after its trials.

He looked back at Alya. She must be thinking the same things about Marinette that Nino was about Adrien, feeling the same tsunami of emotions that he was.

He reached out and grabbed Alya's hand, squeezing it lightly. It was shaking a little, but she smiled over at him before continuing to light their way around the warehouse. The tiny lights danced over endless rows of boxes, some of them spilled over and emptied of their contents, as if by some strange giant rodent. Nino edged his way around a spill of cotton rolls and peeked around the next corner.

It… wasn't completely black. Was that a door? Or some kind of gap in the wall?

Alya, as stubbornly unhesitant as ever, had moved ahead of him and was approaching the light. She made some kind of move with her arm that he assumed was a wave to come closer, but it was too dark to really tell. He hurried to catch up to her.

It wasn't a door, or a gap in the wall. It was a mirror, which was reflecting light from somewhere on the roof and shining it directly at them. And next to it was a long, twisting set of stairs heading up to the rafters.

Nino considered trying to regroup with Adrien or perhaps finishing the ground floor before they went upstairs, but Alya was already on the seventh step, so he just shrugged and followed her.

 **Sorry to everyone who's a bit confused by the setting. It's- kinda vague, I guess. Just think, somewhere dark and creepy, with lots of draughts and wind. But otherwise, I'm looking forward to how this is going to turn out. Up next: Alya and Nino get front row seats to a big surprise! What do you think is going to happen to Chat and Marinette? And poor Tikki, stuck with an akuma! What will she do?  
Any comments are greatly appreciated! 3**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey, everyone! Sorry for the wait- Damn life got in the road, but I'm still kicking!** **(ᗒᗜᗕ)՛̵̖** **Hope you enjoy!**

The rafters were a lot colder, and the air tasted like dust. But there were no more boxes, and at each step was a little green light like on an airport runway, just bright enough to show you where you were going. They crept along, filled with equal amounts of terror ad the kind of excitement that made you want to giggle at the worst possible moment.

Underneath them, the tops of the shelves creaked and shifted. They could see the platforms extending all the way to the other wall. It was a lot dustier in the roof, and colder as well. The wind was bashing against the roof above them and escaping through the cracks in between the sheets of corrugated iron. They could just make out the floor below them with their tiny torches. And, as they walked around a corner, they could see the silhouette of Matchbreaker, crouched on the platform in front of them, huge eyes looking down underneath him.

Nino gasped, and Alya clamped a hand over his mouth, crouching down underneath the handrail. The Akuma was so close to them that if he turned around they would be done for. Nino stuffed his Eiffel Tower lights under his shirt. He tried not to breathe.

Suddenly, Matchbreaker tensed, and jumped, down in the darkness. He laughed that huge laugh that made Nino want to run as far away as he could. Nino looked down, trying to see past the darkness.

Matchbreaker had Adrien, limp in his huge hand. They had lost.

Perhaps- not. Alya had run off already, following Matchbreaker with those sneaky reporter skills that Nino thought were so cool, running along the platforms above Matchbreaker's head. Nino jogged a little slower, trying to keep as quiet as possible, trying to work out where they were going. Matchbreaker was walking with a quick, angry purpose, the purple haze of Hawkmoth covering his face. He reached the edge of the room where there was a kind of separate room with a single door, built into the wall- just like Chat had said. Marinette was inside, leaning heavily on the wall, a huge purple bruise across her collar bones that Nino could see even from his perch in the roof. Before she could react, or even open her mouth, Matchbreaker had torn the ring off Adrien's finger and thrown him into the cupboard as well, even before his suit could disappear. Matchbreaker roared in triumph and tucked the ring underneath his bracelet. The purple haze over his face grew darker and twisted around the Akuma's head like a ball.

Marinette was banging on the door behind him. Nino couldn't quite hear what she said, but it had Matchbreaker pausing for a moment, turning to look at the closed door. Marinette yelled again; "Papa! Please!" was all Nino heard.

Matchbreaker laughed again, but this time it sounded almost… unsure. He reached down to the door, pressing one huge hand against the metal. He tapped against the door- three times, once, a pause. Three times again.

Inside, Marinette copied. The noise seemed huge in the space, even though the wind rushing past Nino was so much louder. Matchbreaker reached for the door handle.

The purple haze solidified and attacked him. It passed right through his shoulder, and Matchbreaker screamed and tried desperately to swat it away. And then it covered his whole body, and he howled again. Marinette was screaming, too, and the wind seemed to scream along with them.

And then Matchbreaker seemed to… grow. He snarled, now, and Nino realised that whatever had been human inside of him, trying desperately to get out, had been beaten and broken. There was no chance of bringing him back any other way than breaking his Akuma- and yet, Ladybug and Chat Noir were trapped together in the dark, and Hawkmoth was most likely coming towards them right at this moment to collect his prize.

"No one shall ever love again! Love breaks people, destroys lives, turns people into desperate idiots! I will make sure no one ever loves again!"

They had to go to the police. Matchbreaker looked mad, looked _bloodthirsty._ He turned to Alya, motioning for her to follow him back to the police, update them on what was happening and maybe have time for a new plan before Hawkmoth arrived.

Alya wasn't there.

She was gone. Completely. he couldn't see her at all. Nino sunk to his knees and covered his mouth scared that the Akuma would hear him. Had she been taken by Matchbreaker, so fast that he hadn't seen it? Had she run off again, putting herself in danger without thinking, stupidly just relying on luck to keep her _alive?_ His hands were shaking. His teeth were shaking.

He looked down again. She wasn't with Matchbreaker. She was safe; for the moment, at least. She must have wanted to move closer, just expected him to follow her. Now he was shaking with anger. How dare she put herself in danger like this without thinking of how badly it would hurt him? Searching for her perfect story, wanting to be the perfect hero but not thinking of how far she could fall. Nino wanted to cry.

There was movement at the bottom of the stairs. Nino scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he dared. But it wasn't Alya. It was a man in thick, dark clothing, the kind that hid all sorts of harmful weapons around his person. He grabbed Nino's hand and pressed a finger to his lips, then motioned for Nino to follow him. Nino shook his head firmly; he had to find Alya! But the man stared at him and tugged hard enough that Nino had no choice to follow or make a scene that the Akuma would notice.

They weaved around two aisles before the man spoke, bending down to Nino's ear despite that Nino had always considered himself far from short. His voice was rough and low, and Nino nodded gravely when he finished speaking. He wondered where Alya was, and what she would think of this new development.

Adrien groaned as he was tossed into the room, hitting his head firmly against something heavy and hard. He was in a heap on the floor, something jamming onto his back

He opened his eyes but could see nothing. His hand felt light, _wrong_ to not have his ring on, his finger stinging slightly from where it had been ripped off him. The green light around his suit had just disappeared, and he was just Adrien again, locked in a prison with Marinette.

It was her knee pressed into his back, and she was stretched over his chest, her hair tickling his neck. She moved again, drawing herself from underneath him, and he sat up as slowly as he could. The room was tiny, and Adrien hit his hand on another of the shelves, wincing as something sharp pressed into his skin. He could feel Marinette trying to make herself as small as possible in the other corner, and twisted towards her.

"Ladybug? Are you okay?" He reached over to feel her face, wet with tears. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Chat." She said. "We should have gone to the Eiffel Tower instead, I don't know what I was thinking, I-"

"Don't worry about it, Bugaboo. You did as well as you've always done. I should have helped you better, as well. And I shouldn't have just fallen into that trap before- I should have seen it coming a mile off. I was just so worried about you- but that doesn't matter. We just have to work out how to get out now."

There was a roar outside, and Marinette shot to her feet, paging her flat palm against the door as hard as she could, the echo making Adrien wince. "Papa! Papa!" She screamed. "Don't do this! I know you're still in there! Just let us out, and we can help you. I'll defeat Hawkmoth and we can find Maman and Adrien, and then we can all go back home and be happy. Papa! Please, Papa!"

There was a tap on the other side of the door, that Marinette copied, and Adrien watched the door handle twist. This was it! They could help him! _This time I'll make sure that all of my family and friends are safe, I'll defeat Hawkmoth and then I'll get faster and stronger and better, I won't let anything happen to them ever again-_

The handle flicked back, and there was a roar outside, a roar of anger and pain. The whole room seemed to shake with it, and Marinette fell to her knees on the floor next to Adrien. "Hawkmoth has taken him." She whispered, curling into herself. "He's gone. It's _hopeless."_

Adrien looked around, trying to see anything other than black, with no success. "Surely there's something else- some other way out. Is there an air vent or something? A crack in the concrete?"

"If there is, it's far too dark for us to see. We just have to wait here until someone finds us, I suppose. At least we don't have our Miraculous, so no one can work how much of a failure we are."

Adrien turned back to her, trying to feel his way to hug her. "Marinette… you can't say that. You did so well. Just because it was your Dad, and your Mum got turned, it's no wonder, really. You're putting _way_ to much pressure on yourself to fix it all on your own. We'll just wait here, and help will come."

"But you can't know that! And Papa has both of our Miraculouses and he's preparing to give them to Hawkmoth right _now. And we can't do anything."_

"Look- Marinette, stop. You need to stop. You didn't fail. It's not over, it's not finished. And we're going to fix it, just like we always do. Together."

He could feel her cheeks smile underneath his hands, and he sighed in relief. "We'll stay together, Marinette. I promise."

She nodded, and tucked herself under his arm, into his jacket. Adrien just realised how freezing it was, now that all the excitement and adrenaline had drained out of him, that they were sitting awkwardly on the concrete floor of a supplies closet, in the middle of the night with the wind howling all around them. He took off his jacket and draped it over them both, and rested his head against the door. He could hear the creak of metal, and the sound of the police at the doors. Would they be able to find them in here? Did Alya and Nino know where they were? How badly Adrien failed?

"So everyone did see."

"I- what?''

"You know who I am. You called me Marinette. Does the rest of Paris know as well?"

"No! Not at all. It was just me that saw you detransform, and, well, I really should have guessed beforehand anyway. Just me. And Nino and Alya."

"Alya knows! How?"

"She was at the football stadium, she just saw you. She says she feels really bad for not realising it sooner. She and Nino are here to help me find you."

"Is she angry?"

"Maybe. I don't really know."

"Chat…" Marinette shifted again. "Do you think everyone's okay? Like, that no ones hurt or anything?"

"I think that the police did a good job of evacuating everyone. I'm sure that no one's really hurt."

Marinette made a small sound in response and rested her head against his shoulder. They listened intently, to the wind, to the Akuma, to the people outside. For once, it wasn't up to them.

Alya was running as fast as she could down the stairs, the wind whipping her hair across her face. She could see Matchbreaker out of the corner of her eye, determinedly didn't watch when he twisted and transformed into some kind of monster even Paris hadn't seen yet. And she didn't listen when Marinette screamed, and when Matchbreaker roared and again, and turned towards the door- waiting for Hawkmoth, no doubt. No. Alya only had one thing in mind.

She'd seen it from the platform above, just out of the corner of her eye when the light had reflected it perfectly. If she could jump high enough- yes! Thank goodness! And she crawled on the stack of boxes.

There was an air vent on the roof of where Marinette and Adrien were trapped. If she could fit her head through, then she could pull them out, right? Matchbreaker wasn't watching. He was just there, guarding the door. The police were outside- she could hear them yelling into their radios.

Carefully, she inched the vent open and shined her phone light inside. She could see the shadows of the shelves, and the wine of Adrien's hair. And there was Marinette as well, blinking in the light!

Alya thrust out her hand, ready to pull her friends to safety, so incredibly happy that she couldn't breathe. Adrien grabbed her hand first, pulling himself out easily, and crawling out of the way to sit at the edge of the roof. He helped Alya pull out Marinette as well, ad the two girls hugged desperately. Alya opened her mouth, ready to blurt out everything that had crossed over her mind all of that day, all of the excitement and discoveries and terror at the world that she and Nino had just been thrust into. But Marinette- _oh my god, Ladybug-_ placed a finger over her mouth, and with the trademark smile that Alya couldn't believe she hadn't noticed before, followed Adrien down Alya's makeshift ladder to the floor. Matchbreaker laughed, and the police started to ram something against the metal doors in front of him, was that a helicopter?

Alya saw Nino in the shadows, gesturing for them to come over. Adrien had grasped Marinette's hand tightly, and he pulled her into the shadows, Alya on their tail. They followed Nino, crawling in the shadows until they were far enough away that Alya felt safe to talk.

"What's happening, Nino?" she asked.

"The army was notified by the police after Ladybug was taken by Matchbreaker. They've surrounded the building. There are people inside here waiting for Hawkmoth to arrive, and they want us to find Ladybug and Chat Noir, which I suppose means getting your jewellery back- without alerting Matchbreaker. Which is practically impossible, but anyway." Nino had a grim look on his face, and wasn't looking at her; instead, his head was turned towards Adrien and Marinette, the latter holding onto Adrien's hand until the skin around had gone white. She looked exhausted but Adrien didn't seem to mind, or perhaps not even notice; he was watching Nino with a seriousness that she had never seen before, an expression that made her wonder how she had never worked out that he was a superhero.

Nino directed them into a haphazard pile of empty cardboard boxes that should have been found in a children's cartoon. How quickly something she would've wanted to play in has become the only safe place. They curled up together behind the boxes, and Alya tried to drown out the noise outside. Bubbles of excitement in her blood- this was the adventure. This was what she'd always dreamed of, been chasing for years as soon as she had heard about Ladybug the teenage superhero. Something that she could do that might be recognised, something that might actually make a difference to people.

"I learned this all from one of the sergeants. He said that we need the two of you to get ready to fight as soon as possible. For the moment, it's all hanging on us to make sure that Matchbreaker can't give the Miraculous to Hawkmoth. We need a plan now, otherwise, this might actually be it. This is the end of all of it." Nino continued, his voice filling up the tiny space between their faces. At that, Marinette seemed to transform into a statue, her eyes blown wide, overwhelmed and scared. She looked so very small and lost, as just a teenage girl in a whole dark world that she had only touched the surface of. And Alya realised the same- that although their two friends had been running around Paris, saving the city time and time again, now that they had lost the Miraculouses and they were just- Just Adrien and Marinette, that people could get hurt now, and a shout of "Miraculous Ladybug!" couldn't fix everything like it usually would. _People could die. People could actually die._ Alya subtly moved closer to her friend, worried that she was just about to keel over. She tapped Marinette on the shoulder, who jumped and turned her head to look at Alya, her eyes widening in recognition before narrowing again. She crawled past Adrien, deliberately not looking at him, and spoke directly to Nino, her voice shaking but wiry-strong. "I was thinking a little about this while I was stuck in there, and I have a plan. Chat Noir and I have to get as close to Matchbreaker as possible, so we need something to distract him long enough that we can steal them. We have the advantage of surprise, and speed with all the obstacles around him. So Alya and Nino are going to be in charge of the distraction."

Alya listened dutifully, torn between excitement and terror. She couldn't help but keep thinking; _this is real now. This is all real._ And if they didn't do this properly, if something went wrong, this could end very, very badly. As Marinette finished and she and Adrien moved into position, she turned to go but stopped with a hand on her wrist. "I'd like to talk to you for a moment. Now." Nino said. She crouched back down to look at him.

Nino opened his mouth and closed it again. Alya moved closer to him, listening past the wind.

"Don't."

She scrambled backwards. What was this? "Nino..."

"I thought you were going to die. When you ran off and I couldn't see you and now I just sound like some kind of overbearing boyfriend but I was _so scared, I was so scared when you weren't there_ Alya and I just thought about how many times you've just run off after something like that, searching for you adventure or whatever, and I just, I couldn't-"

On impulse, Alya kissed him. It seemed the least that she could do, with all these emotions pushing them so close together. she could feel his tears run across the bridge of her nose.

Then he hugged her, and his hair tickled her ear and his headphones fit awkwardly under her chin. "Don't scare me like that ever again," he whispered.

"Okay?"

"Okay."


End file.
